Pope offers New Year Greetings to World’s Jewish Communities

Pope Francis praised the increasingly friendly and fruitful relations between the Catholic Church and Jewish leaders as he also wished the world’s Jewish communities a happy Rosh Hashanah.

“In recent decades, we have been able to draw closer to one another and to engage in an effective and fruitful dialogue. We have grown in mutual understanding and deepened our bonds of friendship,” he told a delegation of rabbis, led by Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, the chief rabbi of Moscow.

The pope met with representatives of the Conference of European Rabbis, the Rabbinical Council of America and the Commission of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel; the groups are engaged in dialogue with the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.

Judaism and Christianity

The rabbis presented the pope with their written declaration, “Between Jerusalem and Rome,” which, according to the declaration, offers “an important contemporary Jewish Orthodox reflection on the relationship between Judaism and Christianity.” The declaration was published online in early 2017.

“We are presently experiencing a fruitful moment of dialogue,” Pope Francis told them. And he echoed the declaration’s statement that, “given the great spiritual heritage we hold in common, every effort must be made to foster reciprocal knowledge and respect, above all through biblical studies and fraternal discussions.”

While recognising deep theological differences exist between the two faith traditions, the pope underlined the importance of the document affirming that “religions must use moral behaviour and religious education – not war, coercion or social pressure – to influence and inspire.”

Happy New Year!

After expressing his hopes that “the Eternal One bless and enlighten our cooperation so that together we can accept and carry out ever better his plans,” the pope told the delegation, “Shanah tovah,” conveying his best wishes for the Jewish New Year, which begins Sept 20.

He asked the delegates to remember him in their prayers and he prayed that “the Almighty bestow his peace upon us and upon the entire world.” By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service