Source: The Pilot "Get the Catholic Perspective"



50 Years ago Cardinal Cushing helped forever change Catholic - Jєωιѕн relations              


Pope John XXIII leads the opening session of the Second Vatican Council in St. Peter's Basilica Oct. 11, 1962. (CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano)

Fifty years ago this week, Cardinal Richard J. Cushing, the Archbishop of Boston, delivered a speech in Rome that changed history.

Two years earlier, Pope John XXIII had convened the Second Vatican Council when he invited 2908 bishops from around the world to Rome. He urged adoption of the Church reforms he felt were required in a century that had produced scientific and intellectual revolutions, nαzιsm, Fascism, Communism, two world wars, nuclear weapons, and the h0Ɩ0cαųst. High on the papal agenda was the need for the Roman Catholic Church to change its often-negative teachings about the Jєωιѕн people and Judaism.

John XXIII chose Vatican biblical scholar Cardinal Augustin Bea to direct that task. Both the Italian pope and the German cardinal believed it was imperative for the Church to discard its traditional adversarial attitudes about Jєωs and Judaism, and replace them with a new constructive relationship.

Early in his efforts, Cardinal Bea was overly optimistic. He predicted any Council statement on the subject would be a "footnote" and not a "free standing docuмent." However, the Declaration the bishops ultimately approved is today considered a major achievement, and hardly a footnote.

But it was not smooth sailing. Some bishops were opposed to any statement and Cardinal Bea's first draft on Catholic-Jєωιѕн relations underwent numerous revisions. Indeed, Cardinal Bea was forced to submit a series of controversial drafts that attracted intense interest in the global media as well as drawing close scrutiny from the Jєωιѕн, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox representatives who were official Vatican Council guests or observers.

In June 1963, Pope John XXIII died and was succeeded by Pope Paul VI who continued his predecessor's efforts to adopt a strong declaration about Jєωs and Judaism. One of Cardinal Bea's drafts made specific reference to the odious deicide charge -- the belief the Jєωιѕн people were eternally condemned by God for their alleged role in the death of Jesus. For centuries the frequently lethal "Christ killer" charge had been hurled at Jєωs. But "deicide" was deleted from the draft because it was not an official Church teaching, and, it was argued, Council participants could not vote on the concept.

In the summer of 1964, Cardinal Bea had crafted a lengthy third version of his "footnote." It repudiated all forms of prejudice, anti-Semitism, and it implicitly rejected the deicide charge. The draft urged Catholics to foster mutual respect and knowledge of Jєωs after two millennia of misunderstanding, suspicion, and distrust.

But without John XXIII's extraordinary leadership, a weary 84-year-old Cardinal Bea faced the grim possibility the entire docuмent might be voted down or tabled; either Council action would relegate his efforts to the dustbin of history.

At this nadir in Church history, a group of American bishops became alarmed believing any positive statement on Jєωs and Judaism might be doomed. Led by Cardinal Cushing and Cardinal Francis Spellman of New York, U.S. Catholic leaders moved to make sure a significant docuмent emerged after years of indecision.

Cardinal Cushing hated to venture far from his beloved Boston, but he traveled to Rome to lead the effort to adopt a strong statement. Inside St. Peter's Basilica on Sept. 28, 1964, Cushing read his speech (about a thousand words in English translation) to his fellow bishops in Latin, the designated Vatican Council language. One observer recalled the cardinal's raspy, gravelly voice with its New England accent shattered the microphones and loudly echoed throughout the vast sanctuary.

Cardinal Cushing demanded the Council statement be "more positive, less timid, more charitable." He added, "we cannot dare attribute to later generations of Jєωs the guilt of the crucifixion…(there is) universal guilt …we must deny that the Jєωs are guilty of the death (of Jesus)…"

"There is no Christian rationale -- neither theological nor historical-- for any iniquity, hatred or persecution of our Jєωιѕн brothers….In this our age (of the h0Ɩ0cαųst), how many Jєωs have suffered! How many have died because of the indifference of Christians, because of silence!...let our voices humbly cry out now!"

Cushing's powerful speech was widely reported and he was featured on a Time magazine cover. A year later, in October 1965 the world's bishops adopted the now historic "Nostra Aetate" ("In Our Time") statement that has permanently changed Christian-Jєωιѕн relations.

Cushing helped insure the final vote wasn't even close: 2221 to 81.

Rabbi Rudin, the American Jєωιѕн Committee's Senior Interreligious Adviser, is the author of "Cushing, Spellman, O'Connor: The Surprising Story of How Three American Cardinals Transformed Catholic-Jєωιѕн Relations."

Yes, another Cushing legacy:


 Jєωs observe High Holy Days in Catholic church


Using a curtain to hide a large sculpture of Jesus on the cross, the Holy Family Catholic Church in Inverness transforms its altar to host last week's Rosh Hashana service for the Beth Tikvah congregation in nearby Hoffman Estates. This is the 10th year the church has hosted services for the Jєωιѕн High Holy Days.
Courtesy of Holy Family



The trickiest part about hosting Beth Tikvah's Jєωιѕн holiday of Yom Kippur in the sanctuary of the Holy Family Catholic Church in Inverness is finding a discreet and sensitive way to hide Jesus.

From a suspended perch above the altar, a larger-than-life Jesus Christ reaches out from a clear, acrylic cross in Ernest Caballero's magnificent "Cross of New Life" sculpture, which is the focal point in the Holy Family sanctuary. The sculpture, which cost $750,000 when it was unveiled in 1997, measures 16-feet-by-12-feet and weighs nearly 2,000 pounds. But that overtly Christian imagery doesn't mesh with the most solemn of Jєωιѕн High Holy Days.

"So we lower it as far as possible and then put a white screen over it," says Heidi Rooney, communications director for Holy Family.

"My ancestors could have never imagined such a possibility," says Taron Tachman, rabbi of Beth Tikvah, a Reform Jєωιѕн congregation in Hoffman Estates that doesn't have space in its building for the crowds drawn to Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur services. This Friday night and Saturday morning will mark the 10th year that Holy Family has hosted Beth Tikvah's High Holy Days.

"The fact that two religions are able to pray in the same sanctuary makes that space even more holy," Tachman says.

"To have our Jєωιѕн brothers and sisters atone and ask forgiveness in the same space (as we partake in) the Eucharist on a daily basis, to me, these two thing are very powerful spiritually," says the Rev. Terry Keehan, pastor at Holy Family.

A 10-minute drive from Holy Family, Beth Tikvah can accommodate only about half of the 400 to 500 people who attend High Holy Days services. To prepare for services at the Catholic church, a moving truck hauls the congregation's ark, which houses the Torah scrolls, banners and other items needed for the services, says Steve Pill, who lives in Palatine and serves as co-chair of the Beth Tikvah ritual committee.

Meanwhile, Holy Family not only hides the Jesus sculpture, but it also covers artwork depicting the 12 stations of the cross and even removes bulletins featuring the cross, Rooney says.

"Last year, at Rosh Hashana, we had two weddings," says Keehan, in a statement most priests never have occasion to utter. Both congregations work together quickly to transform the altar from Catholic to Jєωιѕн and back again.

No rental price is suggested, and Beth Tikvah makes a donation to Holy Family.

"We call it a mitzveh," Tachman says, using the Yiddish word for a good deed. "They look upon it the same way. It makes them feel good that we're doing this."

Members of both congregations overwhelmingly support the agreement, the rabbi and priest say.

"One year, I put my (priestly) collar on and handed out hymnals just to show them that not only do we welcome them, I welcome them, too," Keehan says. "It's all part of something we take as sacred, and that's welcoming people."

The church created controversy this summer when it fired longtime music director Colin Collette, after he announced online his engagement to his male partner. Keehan says that case involved the church's rules on employment and doesn't change the church's desire to welcome worshippers. Some of the congregation have rallied in support of Collette, and Keehan says a leadership team is working on those issues.

Instead of merely welcoming Beth Tikvah to share its space, the church and the ѕуηαgσgυє began sharing thoughts this year as part of a dialogue series between the congregations.

"It's wonderful," says Pill, who explains that people quickly moved beyond the differences between Judaism and Catholicism and now focus on the ways each use religion in their day-to-day lives. "It is pure dialogue. It is not lectures."

"Our relationship goes deeper than just sharing a space," Tachman adds. "We share stories and we share our hearts."

At the core is a mutual "admiration," agree the rabbi and the priest.

Appreciative of the joyful sound of the shofar, the traditional blowing of a ram's horn, to ring in Rosh Hashana, Keehan says Holy Family has sounded a shofar to celebrate the Holy Week that culminates in Easter.

While the union between Holy Family and Beth Tikvah is unusual, the merging of the best of Jєωιѕн and Christian traditions isn't unique. The priest points out that Jesus was thought to have attended many Jєωιѕн High Holy Days during his youth.

"The Last Supper," Keehan notes, "was a Passover meal."

And the late Cardinal Cushing's greatest sins and deliberate false
teachings caused Jєωs not to turn to Jesus Christ and the Catholic
Church, and caused the lost of their souls because they lived in
their errors to the end of their lives.
This is not charity, but deliberate evil promoted by Cardinal
Cushing and his successors in the Vatican 2 Church.

Dedicated to poche, who in his previous post demonstrates the effect Cushing has on him as he nearly word for word (as bolded below) repeats the teaching of Cushing on V2.


Text of Cardinal Cushing’s Address on Draft Statement on Jєωs


This is a translation of the Latin address by Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston on the council’s draft declaration on the Jєωs at the council session of Sept. 28, 1964.

The declaration on the Jєωs and non-Christians is acceptable, in general. Through this Ecuмenical Council the Church must manifest to the whole world, and to all men, a concern which is genuine, an esteem all-embracing, a sincere charity — in a word, it must show forth Christ. And in this schema De Ecuмenismo, with its declarations on religious liberty and on the Jєωs and non-Christians, in a certain sense it does just that. I would propose, however, three amendments specifically on the Jєωs.

First: We must make our statement about the Jєωs more positive, less timid, more charitable. Our text well illustrates the priceless patrimony which the new Israel has received from the law and the prophets.

And it well illustrates what the Jєωs and Christians share in common. But surely we ought to indicate the fact that we sons of Abraham according to the spirit must show a special esteem and particular love for the sons of Abraham according to the flesh because of this common patrimony. As sons of Adam, they are our brothers: As sons of Abraham, they are the blood brothers of Christ.

The fourth paragraph of this declaration should manifest this and our obligation of special esteem, as a conclusion which logically flows from the first section.

Secondly: On the culpability of the Jєωs for the death of our Savior, as we read in Sacred Scriptures, the rejection of the Messiah by His own people is a mystery: a mystery which is indeed for our instruction, not for exaltation.

The parables and prophecies of Our Lord teach us this. We cannot judge the leaders of ancient Israel — God alone is their judge. And most certainly we cannot dare attribute to later generations of Jєωs the guilt of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus or the death of the Savior of the world, except in the sense of the universal guilt in which all of us men share.

We know and we believe that Christ died freely, and He died for all men and because of the sins of all men, Jєωs and gentiles.

Therefore, in this declaration in clear and evident words we must deny that the Jєωs are guilty of the death of our Savior, except insofar as all men have sinned and on that account crucified Him and, indeed, still crucify Him. And especially, we must condemn any who would attempt to justify inequities, hatred or even persecution of the Jєωs as Christian actions.

All of us have seen the evil fruit of this kind of false reasoning. In this august assembly, in this solemn moment, we must cry out. There is no Christian rationale — neither theological nor historical — for any inequity, hatred or persecution of our Jєωιѕн brothers.

Great is the hope, both among Catholics and among our separated Christian brothers, as well as among our Jєωιѕн friends in the New World, that this sacred synod will make such a fitting declaration.

Thirdly and finally, I ask, venerable brothers, whether we ought not to confess humbly before the world that Christians, too frequently, have not shown themselves as true Christians, as faithful to Christ, in their relations with their Jєωιѕн brothers? In this our age, how many have suffered! How many have died because of the indifference of Christians, because of silence! There is no need to enumerate the crimes committed in our own time. If not many Christian voices were lifted in recent years against the great injustices, yet let our voices humbly cry out now.