Archbishop: We all want God

PROVIDENCE – Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, was the draw as close to 600 people filled St. Dominic Chapel on the Providence College campus on Nov. 3. The crowd was a mixed faith group, judging from the number of kippot in the audience, as well as other religious garb.

Dolan, the keynote speaker in PC’s Theological Exchange Between Catholics and Jews lecture series, was charged with talking about “Catholic and Jewish Dialogue: 2000 Years But Just Beginning.”

He spoke about the Second Vatican Council’s Nostra Aetate, the landmark document that decried anti-Semitism and asserted that Jews could not be blamed for killing Jesus. Issued 50 years ago, it opened a dialogue between Jews and Catholics that forever improved the relationship between the two religions. Dolan pointed out that John Paul II, who served as pope from 1978 to 2005, went on to restart a conversation that had been interrupted many years earlier.

“He wanted to recover the primacy of the spiritual. The church’s most natural ally was the Jews,” Dolan said, adding that the pope believed that the Jewish community would share his sense of urgency in this matter.

That sense of urgency stemmed from a trip John Paul made to his native Poland, according to Dolan. In a Warsaw square during the Communist era, as thousands and thousands gathered, people began to chant: “We want God. We want God.”

As Dolan recounted, John Paul realized that there was a universal need for God.

 “That need inspired John Paul to invite Jews into a providential and urgent partnership,” said Dolan. And that was the heart of the Nostra Aetate, Latin for “in our time.”

Dolan has been at the forefront of Jewish-Christian relations, serving in a  group of bishops and rabbis that meet to discuss issues concerning the two faiths. Rabbi Wayne Franklin of Temple Emanu-El in Providence is also part of this group. Franklin was sitting the front row, and Dolan referred to him several times in his presentation.

Dolan outlined some of the progress that’s taken place in the 50 years since the Nostra Aetate, explaining that the conversation has gone from tentative discussions and arguments on the path  to learning about one another to the sharing of common pastoral problems and issues, such as seasonal holidays and intermarriage.

“The Jewish-Catholic friendship has never been stronger,” he said. “We can be a blessing to one another.”

The Theological Exchange Between Catholics and Jews brings experts to Providence College twice each academic year in an effort to advance Jewish-Christian relations. Cardinal Dolan’s lecture was part of the fall series. In the spring, there will be a dialogue between a Jewish and Catholic expert on specific issues.

FRAN OSTENDORF is the editor of The Jewish Voice.