Page 102 - October 7 - Teresa Pirola

Such healing steps, taken by the Catholic Church and by other mainstream churches, are of critical importance. However, the task of addressing ingrained prejudice is far from complete. The old contemptuous view that held Jews to be rejected by God is still capable of tugging at the Christian mindset in subtle and subconscious ways, especially during Passion Sunday and Good Friday, when the Passion narrative is prominent in the liturgical rhythm.
What might we do about this? How can Christian minds and hearts be fortified against the infiltration of subtle anti- Jewish bias as we listen to the evocative strains of the Passion story—read, and perhaps also enacted—on Palm Sunday and Good Friday?
This question is especially pertinent in the current climate, when Jewish communities around the world are experiencing unprecedented levels of antisemitism and when tensions emanating from conflict in the Middle East are tearing at the fabric of usually peaceful societies.
Here are ten suggestions, for this year and future years:
1. View a series of short videos, ‘Presenting the Passion ... Without Blaming the Jews’ (available at ICCJ.org), by leading scholars in the field of Jewish-Christian relations.
2. Consult these guidelines (US Catholic Bishops) when planning dramatisations of the Passion story.
3. Become educated in the history of the church’s journey as it repented of the ‘teaching of contempt’ and embraced the ‘teaching of respect’. A fascinating work that traces the development of Nostra Aetate is John Connelly’s From Enemy to Brother: The Revolution in Catholic Teaching on the Jews 1933–1965 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012).
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