Re: Algeria bans conversion of Muslims
LOL... The Jewish pot calling the kettle black!
Roman Rabbi boycotts meeting with Catholics over presence of convert cardinal
By Associated Press October 28, 2005
Pope Benedict XVI marked the 40th anniversary of a landmark Vatican document on relations with Jews, calling for a renewed commitment for Catholics and Jews to deepen their bonds and work for the good of all humanity.
Benedict issued a message that was read out Thursday during a commemoration of the "Nostra Aetate" document of the Second Vatican Council, in which the Catholic Church deplored anti-Semitism and repudiated the "deicide" charge that blamed Jews as a people for Christ's death.
Rome's chief rabbi, Riccardo di Segni, said he had refused to attend the ceremony because of the presence of one of the keynote speakers, Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, a Jewish convert to Catholicism.
"It's not a protest, but an invitation to reflect on the meaning of dialogue" between religions, Di Segni told The Associated Press. "If it means losing one's identity and crossing over to the other side, then it's not dialogue."
Cardinal Walter Kasper, who hosted the event, said he did not want to comment on the absence of Di Segni and other European rabbis at the ceremony, saying only that he had received a letter from Di Segni and "he didn't mention Cardinal Lustiger."
The German-born Benedict, who attended the 1962-1965 Vatican meeting as a young theologian, praised "Nostra Aetate" in his message for having laid the foundations for a new relationship between Catholics and Jews.
"On this anniversary ... we need to renew our commitment to the work that yet remains to be done," he said. "The Jewish-Christian dialogue must continue to enrich and deepen the bonds of friendship which have developed, while preaching and catechesis must be committed to ensuring that our mutual relations are presented in the light of the principles set forth by the council."
He said that, in the future, he hoped theological dialogue as well as everyday contacts between Christians and Jews would offer a "shared witness" to the promotion of human dignity, the sanctity of life and the need to build a world of justice and peace.
Rabbi David Rosen, who helped negotiate diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel, said "Nostra Aetate," issued following the Holocaust, had had "truly revolutionary" implications.
"With the promulgation of this declaration, a people -- formerly viewed at best as a fossil but more often as cursed and condemned to wander and suffer -- was now officially portrayed as beloved by God and somehow very much still part of the Divine plan for humankind," he said during the ceremony.
But he said both Catholics and Jews still needed to fully comprehend its implications, and there were still key theological issues to be worked out -- including whether the Catholic Church would relinquish the "invitation to conversion" to Christianity of the Jews.
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