TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The Vatican rejects criticism from Israel’s rabbis for statements Pope Francis about the Torah, saying that the Pope does not question its continued validity for Jews today.
Last month Reuters reported, Rabbi Rasson Arousi, who is in charge of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel’s relationship with the Vatican, had written a stern letter to the Vatican in which he said Francis’ comments at the general audience on August 11 appeared to call the Torah, or Jewish law, obsolete.
“The Jewish law does not give life, does not offer the fulfillment of promises because it is unable to fulfill them. The law is a journey, a journey that leads to an encounter…Those who seek life need to look to the promise and its fulfillment in Christ,” the Pope said. Francis in a public hearing, quoted from Times of Israel.
The Vatican’s official response, seen by Reuters on Friday, said the Pope’s comments in the homily on St Paul’s writings should not be extrapolated from the context of ancient times and have nothing to do with Jews today.
“The persistent Christian belief is that Jesus Christ is the new way of salvation. However, this does not mean that the Torah is reduced or no longer recognized as ‘the way of salvation for the Jewish people’,” wrote Cardinal Kurt Koch, of the Vatican’s department covering religious relations with person Jewish.
“In his catechesis, the Holy Father makes no mention of modern Judaism; his speech is a reflection of (St. Paul’s) theology in the historical context of a particular era,” Koch wrote. Reuters, 10 September 2021.
“The fact that the Torah is so important to modern Judaism is not questioned in any way,” he said.
The Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, contains hundreds of commandments for Jews to follow in their daily lives. Measures of adherence to various guidelines differ between Orthodox and Reformed Jews.
In his letter to Koch in August, Arousi said the Pope’s comments risked returning “teachings of humiliation” prevalent in the Catholic Church until the last century.
“Given the constant positive affirmations Pope Francis has made about Judaism, it is absolutely not to be considered that he is returning to the so-called ‘doctrine of contempt’,” Koch wrote.
“Pope Francis fully respects the foundations of Judaism and has always sought to deepen the bonds of friendship between the two faith traditions,” he said.
Relations between Catholics and Jews underwent a revolution in 1965, when the Second Vatican Council rejected the concept of collective Jewish guilt for Jesus’ death and initiated decades of interfaith dialogue. Pope Francis and two of his predecessors visited the synagogue.
Pope Francis has a good relationship with the Jewish people. While still archbishop in his native Buenos Aires, Pope Francis co-authored the book with one of the city’s rabbis, Abraham Skorka, and has maintained a lasting friendship with him.
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REUTERS | TIMES OF ISRAEL
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