Overview of History of Church’s Relations with the Jews

1. Overview of History of Church’s Relations with the Jews • earlier Church teaching, actions and attitudes towards the Jews • recent: Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI on the Jews

2. What were some early teachings? St John Chrysostom (347-407): Homilies against the Judaizers: "The Jews sacrifice their children to Satan. ... They are worse than wild beasts ... they know only one thing: to satisfy their stomachs, to get drunk, to kill and beat each other up like stage villains and coachmen. ... I hate the Jews…I hate the Synagogue…. It is the duty of all Christians to hate the Jews.“

3. St John Chrysostom: Homily 1 on the Judaizers: …demons dwell in the synagogue, not only in the place itself but also in the souls of the Jews. … Do you not shudder to come into the same place with men possessed, who have so many unclean spirits, who have been reared amid slaughter and bloodshed? Must you share a greeting with them and exchange a bare word? Must you not turn away from them since they are the common disgrace and infection of the whole world? Have they not come to every form of wickedness?…What tragedy, what manner of lawlessness have they not eclipsed by their blood-guiltiness? They sacrificed their own sons and daughters to demons. ……What else do you wish me to tell you? Shall I tell you of their plundering, their covetousness, their abandonment of the poor, their thefts, their cheating in trade? the whole day long will not be enough to give you an account of these things.

4. St. Ambrose (338-397): "The Jews are the most worthless of all men. They are lecherous, greedy, rapacious. They are perfidious murderers of Christ. They worship the Devil. Their religion is a sickness. The Jews are the odious assassins of Christ and for killing God there is no expiation possible, no indulgence or pardon. Christians may never cease vengeance, and the Jew must live in servitude forever. God always hated the Jews. It is essential that all Christians hate them." gave orders to burn the synagogue himself. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274): "the Jews by reason of their fault are sentenced to perpetual servitude and thus the lords of the lands in which they dwell may take things from them as though they were their own."

5. Quotes of Popes: • Pope Stephen III (d.772): “With great sorrow and mortal anxiety, We have heard that the Jews have in a Christian land the same rights as Christians, that Christian men and women live under the same roof with these traitors...” (Epistle to the Bishop of Norbonne) • Pope Saint Gregory VII (d.1085): “We exhort your Royal Majesty [King Alfonse VI of Castile], not to further tolerate, that the Jews rule Christians and have power over them. For to allow that Christians are subordinated to Jews and are delivered to their whims, means to oppress the Church of God, means to revile Christ himself.” (Regesta IX. 2)

6. Pope Innocent III (d.1216): • “They repay their hosts, as the proverb says, after the fashion of the rat hidden in the sack, or the snake in the bosom, or the burning brand in one’s lap.” Etsi Judaeos • "the Jews, by their own guilt, are consigned to perpetual servitude because they crucified the Lord...As slaves rejected by God, in whose death they wickedly conspire, they shall by the effect of this very action, recognize themselves as the slaves of those whom Christ's death set free..." to the archbishops of Sens and Paris • "....the Jews, against whom the blood of Christ calls out, although they ought not to be killed, nevertheless, as wanderers they must remain upon the earth until their faces are filled with shame and they seek the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." epistle to the Count of Nevers

7. Pope Innocent III (cont.): • "Crucifiers of Christ ought to be held in continual subjection." epistle to the Hierarchy of France • “…we forbid Jews to be appointed to public offices.” atFourth Ecumenical Lateran Council: Pope Gregory IX (d.1241): “Ungrateful for favours and forgetful of benefits, the Jews return insult for kindness and impious contempt for goodness.” (Epistle to the Hierarchy of Germany)

8. Pope Innocent IV (d.1254): • (The Wicked Perfidy of the Jews)“The wicked perfidy of the Jews - from whose hearts Our Saviour did not remove the veil because of their enormous crimes but caused them justly to continue in their blindness, commit acts of shame which engender astonishment in those who hear, and terror in those who discover it.” • To the King of France “We …grant you full authority by these present letters to banish the Jews… Pope Clement VIII (d.1429): “All the world suffers from the usury of the Jews, their monopolies and deceit.”

9. Pope Eugene IV (d.1447): “We decree and order that from now on, and for all time, Christians shall not eat or drink with the Jews, nor admit them to feasts, nor cohabit with them, nor bathe with them. […] They cannot live among Christians, but in a certain street, separated and segregated from Christians, and outside which they cannot under any pretext have houses ….All and every single Jew, of whatever sex and age, must everywhere wear the distinctive dress and known marks by which they can be evidently distinguished from Christians.”

10. Pope Saint Pius V (d.1572): (Cum Nos Super) “With full understanding and in exercising of the apostolic powers, we withdraw from the Jews and their rule all properties, which the Jews have in their possession in this city Rome or other places of our domain of rule.” (Hebraeorum Gens)“The Jewish people fell from the heights because of their faithlessness and condemned their Redeemer to a shameful death. Their godlessness has assumed such forms that, for the salvation of our own people, it becomes necessary to prevent their disease. Besides usury, through which Jews everywhere have sucked dry the property of impoverished Christians, they are accomplices of thieves and robbers… (cont next page) 

11. Hebraeorum Gens cont: … they allure the unsuspecting through magical incantations, superstition, and witchcraft to the Synagogue of Satan and boast of being able to predict the future. …because of the gravity of their crimes which increase day to day more and more, We order that, within 90 days, all Jews in our entire earthly realm of justice - in all towns, districts, and places - must depart these regions. After this time limit shall all who dwell or wander into [those places have] their property confiscated…and they shall becomes slaves of the Roman Church, live in perpetual servitude and the Roman Church shall have the same rights over them as the remaining [worldly] lords over slaves and property.”

12. Pius X in 1904 in reply to the founder of the Zionist movement, Theodor Herzl: "The Jews did not recognize our God. Therefore, we cannot recognize any right on their part to the Holy Land."

13. Bulls • “Etsi non displiceat “(1205) solicited kings to put an end to “Jewish evils” like usury, arrogance and murder;” • “In generali concilio” (1218) compelled Jews to wear special clothing; • “Si vera sunt” (1239) ordered the seizure and examination of the Talmud and Jewish literature to be burned; • “Etsi doctoribus genium” (1415) collection of anti-Jewish laws; • “Cum nimis absurdum” (1555) established the ghetto in Rome (later Tuscany, Padua, Verona, Manua); forbade contact between Jews and Christians; Jews must wear distinctive dress; economic activities limited to lending money and selling second-hand items. (Relaxed 1562 by Pius IV)

14. Cum Nimis Absurdam (Pope Paul IV, 1555): Since it is completely senseless and inappropriate to be in a situation where Christian piety allows the Jews (whose guilt—all of their own doing—has condemned them to eternal slavery) access to our society…. instead of the slavery, which they deserve…mingling with Christians wearing no identifying garments… even having nurses and housemaids and other Christians as hired servants. …It is unwarranted for it to appear that the sons of free women serve the sons of maids. [Therefore,] § 1. …we ordain that for the rest of time, in the City as well as in other states, territories and domains of the Church of Rome itself, all Jews are to live in only one [quarter] to which there is only one entrance and from which there is but one exit, …and be thoroughly separate from the residences of Christians

15. § 2. Furthermore, in each and every state, territory and domain in which they are living, they will have only one synagogue, and they will construct no other new ones, nor can they own buildings. Furthermore, all of their synagogues, besides the one allowed, are to be destroyed and demolished. And the properties, which they currently own, they must sell to Christians within a period of time to be determined by the magistrates themselves. § 3. Moreover, concerning the matter that Jews should be recognizable everywhere: [to this end] men must wear a hat, women, indeed, some other evident sign, yellow in color,…they can not be absolved or excused from the obligation ….under any pretext whatsoever … § 4. Also, they may not have nurses or maids or any other Christian domestic or service by Christian women in wet-nursing or feeding their children.

16. § 7. And they may not presume in any way to play, eat or fraternize with Christians. § 9. Moreover, these Jews are to be limited to the trade of rag-picking, or “cencinariae” (as it is said in the vernacular), and they cannot trade in grain, barley or any other commodity essential to human welfare. § 10. And those among them who are physicians, even if summoned and inquired after, cannot attend or take part in the care of Christians. § 11. And they are not to be addressed as superiors [even] by poor Christians.

17. “Vices eius nos” (1577) ordered Roman Jews to send delegations to the church; • “Sancta mater ecclesia” (1584) decreed that each Saturday one hundred Jewish men and fifty women must come to listen to conversionist sermons in the church.

18. Other Restrictions 306 Council of Elvira: Christians and Jews cannot intermarry, and clergy cannot eat with Jews 325 Council of Nicaea: Conversation and fellowship with Jews is forbidden to the clergy 600 Pope St. Gregory the Great: Jews should not have excessive freedom (but also not "suffer a violation of their rights“) 1050 Synod of Narbonne: Christians are not permitted to live in Jewish homes 1215 Fourth Lateran Council: Jews are to wear distinctive clothing, and not to go out in public during Triduum 1267 Synod of Breslau: compulsory ghettos for Jews 1279 Synod of Ofen: Christians cannot sell or rent real estate to Jews

19. 1456 Pope Callistus III bans all social communication between Christians and Jews 1566 Pope Pius IV expelled Jews from all cities in the Papal states except the port of Ancona. 1823-9 Pope Leo XII decrees that Jews are to be confined to ghettos and their property is to be confiscated

20. As recently as late 19th century, Civilta Cattolica wrote: Dec 3, 1881: It remains therefore generally proved…that the sanguinary Pascal rite…is a general law binding on the consciences of all Hebrews to make use of the blood of a Christian child…for the sanctification of their souls • Jan 21, 1882: Every year the Hebrews crucify a child…in order that the blood be effective, the child must die in torment. (note: Pope Pius IX ordered the Jesuits to publish the journal Civilta Cattolica in Rome as the informal organ of the Vatican. The articles were cleared by the papal secretariat of state.)

21. A sea change can be considered to have come about with the famous statement Pius XI made to a group of Belgian pilgrims in 1938, when he said, “Whenever I read the words [in the canon of the Mass]: ‘the sacrifice of our Father Abraham,’ I cannot help being deeply moved. Mark well, we call Abraham our Patriarch, our ancestor. Anti-Semitism is irreconcilable with this lofty thought…Anti-Semitism is inadmissible; spiritually, we are all Semites”.

22. Some see Pius IX (reigned 1846-78) as having inaugurated the change. At the outset of his reign he opened up the Jewish ghetto in Rome (although later he re-established it). At the 1st Vatican Council in 1870 he heartily endorsed the following Postulatum (petition), warmly inviting the Jewish community to join the Church. It was signed by virtually all of the Council Fathers.

23. Vatican I – Pius IX –1870Postulatum The undersigned Fathers of the Council humbly yet urgently beseechingly pray that the Holy Ecumenical Council of the Vatican deign to come to the aid of the unfortunate nation of Israel with an entirely paternal invitation; that is, that it express the wish that, finally exhausted by a wait no less futile than long, the Israelites hasten to recognize the Messiah, our Savior Jesus Christ, truly promised to Abraham and announced by Moses; thus completing and crowning, not changing, the Mosaic religion.

24. On one hand, the undersigned Fathers have the very firm confidence that the holy Council will have compassion on the Israelites, because they are always very dear to God on account of their fathers, and because it is from them that the Christ was born according to the flesh.

25. On the other hand, the same Fathers share the sweet and intimate hope that this ardent desire of tenderness and honor will be, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, well received by many of the sons of Abraham, because the obstacles which have held them back until now appear to be disappearing more and more, the ancient wall of separation now having fallen.

26. Would that they then speedily acclaim the Christ, saying “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed be He who comes in the name of the Lord!” Would that they hurl themselves into the arms of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, even now their sister according to the flesh, who wishes likewise to be their mother according to grace as she is ours!

27. “Of old, they [the Jews] called down upon themselves the Blood of the Savior, may it now descend upon them a laver of redemption and life.” – Prayer of Pope Pius XI for the Feast of Christ the King

28. Subsequent Popes, as well as the Second Vatican Council, further developed this trend towards what might be called philo-Semitism. When the future Pope John XXIII (while still Papal Nuncio in Paris) saw newsreel footage of the Auschwitz liberation, he exclaimed: “There is the mystical body of Christ!” Pinchas Lapide, Three Popes and the Jews, p.315

29. Later, as Pope, he expressed contrition for previous Christian hostility towards the Jews: “We are conscious today that many, many centuries of blindness have cloaked our eyes, so that we can no longer see the beauty of Thy Chosen People, nor recognize in their faces our privileged brethren. Forgive us for the curse we falsely attached to their name as Jews. Forgive us for crucifying Thee a second time in their flesh. For we knew not what we did.” Catholic Herald May 14, 1965

30. NOSTRA AETATE (Declaration On The Relation Of The Church To Non-christian Religions) Pope Paul VI (1965) 4. As the sacred synod searches into the mystery of the Church, it remembers the bond that spiritually ties the people of the New Covenant to Abraham's stock. Thus the Church of Christ acknowledges that, according to God's saving design, the beginnings of her faith and her election are found already among the Patriarchs, Moses and the prophets…The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament through the people with whom God in His inexpressible mercy concluded the Ancient Covenant. Nor can she forget that she draws sustenance from the root of that well-cultivated olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild shoots, the Gentiles.(Rom 11) …

31. The Church keeps ever in mind the words of the Apostle about his kinsmen: "theirs is the sonship and the glory and the covenants and the law and the worship and the promises; theirs are the fathers and from them is the Christ according to the flesh" (Rom. 9:4-5), the Son of the Virgin Mary. She also recalls that the Apostles, the Church's main-stay and pillars, as well as most of the early disciples who proclaimed Christ's Gospel to the world, sprang from the Jewish people. God holds the Jews most dear for the sake of their Fathers; He does not repent of the gifts He makes or of the calls He issues.

32. Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so great, this sacred synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies as well as of fraternal dialogues.  Furthermore, in her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel's spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone. 

33. Besides, as the Church has always held and holds now, Christ underwent His passion and death freely, because of the sins of men and out of infinite love, in order that all may reach salvation. It is, therefore, the burden of the Church's preaching to proclaim the cross of Christ as the sign of God's all-embracing love and as the fountain from which every grace flows.

34. The Church owes her origins and faith to Judaism, which is the “root” from which the Church grew (Rom 11) • God has not ended the election of the Jews • Mutual esteem called for, not anti-Semitism • Not the Jews, but humanity’s sin, is responsible for the death of Christ

35. The Popes since the council went even further: John Paul II: • October, 1978 – very first audience as Pope is given to his boyhood Jewish friend, Jerzy Kluger. • June 7, 1979 on a visit to Auschwitz, called Auschwitz “the Golgotha of our century” • November 17, 1980– In his address to the West German Jewish community in Mainz “Whoever meets Jesus Christ, meets Judaism”

36. March 22, 1984 to ADL: the encounter between Catholics and Jews is …a meeting between "brothers", a dialogue between the first and the second part of the Bible. … This closeness is to be manifested…in the deep respect for each other’s identity …based on the mysterious spiritual link which brings us close together, in Abraham and, through Abraham, in God who chose Israel and brought forth the Church from Israel.

37. During first ever Papal visit to the Great Synagogue of Rome (April 13, 1986): “…the Church of Christ discovers her ‘bond’ with Judaism by ‘searching into her own mystery.’ The Jewish religion is not ‘extrinsic’ to us, but in a certain way is ‘intrinsic’ to our own religion. With Judaism, therefore, we have a relationship which we do not have with any other religion. You are our dearly beloved brothers and, in a certain way, it could be said that you are our elder brothers It is not lawful to say that the Jews are "repudiated or cursed", as if this were taught or could be deduced from the Sacred Scriptures of the Old or the New Testament. Indeed,…the Jews are beloved of God, who has called them with an irrevocable calling.”

38. March 26, 2000 (Jerusalem – Western Wall) “God of our fathers,You chose Abraham and his descendants to bring your Name to the Nations. We are deeply saddened by the behaviour of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer and asking your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant. “

39. Pope Benedict XVI Went even further, suggesting that the Jews are still playing a special role in God’s plan of salvation: Reconciling Gospel And Torah (April 1, 1996): …all nations, without the abolishment of the special mission of Israel, become brothers and receivers of the promises of the chosen people. Many Religions – One Covenant (1999): …God,…has obviously entrusted Israel with a distinctive mission in the “time of the Gentiles.”

40. God And The World (2001) : “That the Jews are connected with God in a special way and that God does not allow that bond to fail is entirely obvious. We wait for the instant in which Israel will say yes to Christ, but we know that it has a special mission in history now ... which is significant for the world." Q: “Although the Jews have lived two thousand years in exile…their religion has not just evaporated. This is a phenomenon still without parallel in the history of mankind. The question is whether the development of the world as a whole has not some mysterious connection with the development of the Jewish People.”)

41. A: That actually seems to me to be quite obvious. The way that this tiny people, who no longer have any country, no longer any independent existence, but lead their life scattered throughout the world, …. keep their own identity; …the way the Jews are still Jews and are still a people, even during the two thousand years when they had no country, this is an absolute riddle. This phenomenon in itself shows us that something else is at work here…you can see, in this way, that there is something more than mere historical chance at work. The great powers of that period have all disappeared. Ancient Egypt and Babylon and Assyria no longer exist. Israel remains – and shows us something of the steadfastness of God, something indeed of his mystery.”

42. Q: Are the Jews still God’s chosen people? A: It is quite obvious that the Jews have something to do with God and that God has not abandoned them. And that is how the New Testament sees it too. …the Old Testament remains an unfinished fragment if you stop before you start the New…But hand-in-hand with this belief goes the other, that Israel still has a mission to accomplish today. We are in fact waiting for the moment when Israel, too, will say ‘Yes’ to Christ, but we also know that while history still runs its course, even this standing at the door fulfills a mission, one that is important for the world. In that way this people still has a special place in God’s plan.

43. The Heritage Of Abraham: The Gift Of Christmas(Osservatore Romano Dec 2000) : The task of the Chosen People is, therefore, to make a gift of their God – the one true God – to every other people; as Christians we are the inheritors of their faith in the one God. Our gratitude, therefore, must be extended to our Jewish brothers and sisters . …Perhaps it is precisely because of [the Shoah] that a new vision of the relationship between the Church and Israel has been born: a sincere willingness to overcome every kind of anti-Judaism…such a dialogue ….must begin with a prayer to our God….that he might grant to us Christians a greater esteem and love for ….the people of Israel – to whom belong the adoption as sons, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;

44. theirs are the patriarchs, and from them comes Christ according to the flesh….And this not only in the past, but still today, for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. In the same way, let us pray that he may grant also to the children of Israel a deeper knowledge of Jesus of Nazareth, who is their son, and the gift they have made to us.

45. Why this sea change? Turn to Romans 11 for explanation of role of Judaism between 1st and 2nd Coming: 1-2 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. (assertion that the election of the Jews continues) 7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it sought. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that should not see and ears that should not hear, down to this very day." And David says, "Let their …eyes be darkened so that they cannot see… • (Mysteriously, their blindness was given them by God)

46. 11 So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means! But through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles… (failure to recognize Christ was necessary for Christianity to spread to the Gentiles – i.e. 1st Church Council in Acts 15). 12 Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? (later, the veil will be lifted and the Jews will come into the Church, bringing an even greater blessing!

47. 16 If the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the richness of the olive tree, do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you. You will say, "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in." That is true. ...And even the others, if they do not persist in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree. (the Jews are the cultivated branches, the Gentiles the wild shoots grafted in. When they are, they will be even better suited to Christianity than the Gentiles)

48. 25-6 Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brethren: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in, and so all Israel will be saved; 28-30 As regards the gospel they are enemies of God, for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may receive mercy.

49. 32-36 For God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory for ever. Amen. (the apostasy of the Jews was intentional, for the sake of the Gentiles, but will be reversed after the full number of the Gentiles come in)

50. What is this time of the Gentiles being fulfilled? Luke 21: 24-7 “they [the Jews] will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led captive among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”