The Dope & Israel

...This is true...

...Likewise, one needs to read it within the context of the many statements on Christian-Jewish relations and the Middle East issued by the Holy See and bishops' conferences throughout the world since the promulgation almost two decades ago by the Second Vatican Council of the now famous declaration on (he Jews, Nostra Aetate, no...

...Given the sacramental orientation of Roman Catholic thought, my understanding of this text and the concept of "sign" enunciated there is that it has deep spiritual significance...

...Most Jews sec this tie to the land as essential to their Jewishness...

...It is for such reasons that an overwhelming majority of Jews sec themselves bound in one way or another to the land of Israel...

...The pope does not here, or elsewhere, offer a specific Commonweal: 16 political formula for meeting those very real and urgent needs of Palestinian Arabs, urging rather a negotiated settlement acceptable to the relevant groups in the area itself, so long as this does not endanger the security of Israel...

...And our faith resides in the insight, nurtured by the Jewish prophets, the rabbis, and the Christian saints, that the merely possible can become the real...

...The pope writes: For the Jewish people who live in the state of Israel, and who preserve in that land such precious testimonies to their history and their faith, we must ask for the desired security and the due tranquillity that is the prerogative of every nation and condition of life and of progress for every society...

...Redemptions Anno likewise contains some of the strongest papal language concerning the relationship between the Jewish people and the city of Jerusalem...

...4. These statements, too numerous to be listed here, tell the story of a true teshuvah, a turning on the part of Christianity regarding its understanding of Jews and Judaism, toward an understanding that acknowledges with respect and affirmation how the Jewish people views itself as a people...

...No people," he added, "can be sacrificed to the destiny of others...

...The issue of the level of diplomatic relations — whether on the highest, nuncio level, or, as now, on the lower level of regular diplomatic contacts — is a relatively minor one, though admittedly of larger symbolic importance within the Jewish community...

...On this latter occasion, as in the homily at Otranto and indeed, in Redemptionis Anno, the pope spoke supportingly also of "the Palestinian Arabs, who are waiting rightly for a just and adequate solution to their pressing needs...

...It should not be forgotten, of course, that diplomatic relations do exist between the two...

...One can see here, as well as in parallel Protestant statements, the development within church circles of an appreciation for the link between the Jewish people and the land of Israel, as well as between the Jewish people and Jerusalem...

...The popes have numerous times received prime ministers, presidents, and foreign ministries of Israel, and always arranged and recorded these specifically as visits of state...

...But it is possible...

...This is the essential challenge given in Redemptionis Anno...

...Nor should it be forgotten, as a part of the overall context of Redemptionis Anno, that Pope John Paul II was one of the first (and one of the few) international leaders to voice strong support for (he Camp David agreements, stating that the pact "formali/.es peace between two countries after decades of war and tension, and gives decisive impulse to the peace process in the entire region of the Middle East...

...The pope, in Redemptions Anno, is not content, as some have been, with the simple phrase that all three Abrahamic faiths — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — hold Jerusalem to be holy...

...It acknowledges both the particularity of the Jewish relationship with Jerusalem, and the universal significance of that Jewish particularity — for Christians no less than for Jews...

...Therefore, they turn their minds to her daily, one may say, and point to her as the sign of their nation...

...This statement, in the context of the Catholic church's official acknowledgment of the ongoing validity of God's covenant with the Jewish people, is an extremely significant one...

...Note the phrase: "two countries...

...Nor is it without complexities, ambiguities, and risks when we descend from the level of vision to day-to-day realities...

...Jerusalem is the fulcrum of that encounter...

...But the pope describes in turn the uniqueness of the relationship each religious tradition has with Jerusalem...

...A final clarification is necessary for the record...

...Many, perhaps especially in the Jewish community, have criticized the Holy See and Redemptionis Anno on the basis of their interpretation of it as calling for the "internationalization of Jerusalem...

...In this vein, the bishops of the United States declared in 1975...

...Statements of the Vatican, it is worth noting, consistently use the more general term "homeland" with reference to the Palestinian Arabs, while speaking of Israel as a "nation" or "state...

...Redemptionis Anno, of course, is by no means hcstitant to set forth the stake that the church itself has in Jerusalem, not only in access to its holy places for pilgrimage, but also in the viability of its character as religiously pluralist, specifying Muslim along with Jewish and Christian reverence for the city...

...Together, the three monotheistic traditions, meeting in Jerusalem, can give vivid testimony to the One God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel, whom we all serve...

...In a homily on the Hill of Martyrs in Otranto, Italy on October 3, 1980...

...Redemptionis Anno, in this context, should be taken very seriously as an official acknowledgment and affirmation of the existence of the state of Israel...

...Regarding the Jewish attachment, he recognizes both the religious and the historic "peoplehood" dimension of Jewish attachment to Jerusalem: Jews ardently love her, and in every age venerate her memory, abundant as she is in many remains and monuments from the time of David who chose her as the capital, and of Solomon who built the Temple there...

...I would like to lay this misunderstanding to rest once and for all...

...So the de jure as well as de facto status of the Holy See/Israel relationship is clear...

...This appreciation is especially apparent in the statements of the present pope...

...The pope emphasizes, for example, that "before it was the City of Jesus . . . Jerusalem was the historic site of the biblical revelation of God, the meeting place, as it were, of heaven and earth, in which more than in any other place the word of God was brought to humanity...

...This, then, is an entirely unambiguous statement of recognition on the part of the Holy See regarding the state of Israel...

...To understand the pope's message in this letter, one needs to understand it as a spiritual challenge, and not merely as a political statement...

...Jews, Christians, and Muslims must, in the pope's vision, come to terms with each other for the sake of the higher duty to which all are called...

...In dialogue with Christians, Jews have explained that they do not consider themselves as a church, a sect, or a denomination, as is the case among Christian communities, but rather as a peoplehood that is not solely racial, ethnic, or religious, but in a sense a composite of all these...

...Redemptionis Anno thus affirms the religious and communal rights of Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the city, rights which are already acknowledged and affirmed by the wise administration of Mayor Teddy Kolleck...

...This is the pope's 1984 Good Friday apostolic letter Redemptions Anno, which is devoted to "the fate of the Holy City," Jerusalem, the capital of the reborn Jewish state of Israel...

...Consider the powerful phrase "as the capital," and the even stronger declaration "sign of their nation...

...A wide range of options, such as put forth by various parties in Israel and elsewhere, is thus left open by Vatican policy...

...It puts into proper perspective the separate question of the precise level of diplomatic relations to be maintained between the government of the state of Israel and the Holy See...

...Until 1967, the year in which Israel took over the city, the Holy See did in fact offer support for the idea of internationalization as it was presented in the United Nations (and rejected by all Arab parties...

...The policy now is to support some form of international law, or statute regarding the religiously pluralist character of the city since "not only the sacred places, but the whole historical Jerusalem and the existence of religious communities, their situation and future, cannot but affect everyone and interest everyone...

...Beginning in 1968, however, the Holy Sec began to speak a very different language...

...Turning that vision into reality will not be easy...

...Pope John Paul II explicitly linked the foundation of the state of Israel with the tragedy of the Holocaust: "the Jewish people, after tragic experiences connected with the extermination of so many sons and daughters, driven by the desire for security, set up the state of Israel...

...Again, no ambiguity is allowed...

...The Holy See, simply put, has no strict policy on who should hold sovereignty over the city of Jerusalem, though it docs have a clear and quite useful set of principles that would apply to any group holding sovereignty...

...What difficulties Christians may experience in sharing this view, they should strive to understand this link between land and people which Jews have expressed in their writings and worship throughout two millennia as a longing for the homeland, holy Zion...

...This does not preclude the possibility of the creation of a third state out of the original Palestinian Mandate, but it does allow for a wider range of creative options to be negotiated by the affected parties themselves...