"Dialogue" a One-Way Street Says Rabbi

by Christopher A. Ferrara

        In column after column here at fatima.org, I have demonstrated how the Church’s enemies view "ecumenism" and "dialogue" as nothing more than one-way streets that run in their direction — a tool for the wearing down of the Catholic position, while the non-Catholic partner remains absolutely obdurate in his errors.

        Here is another example of what I mean. On January 16, 2004, Zenit.org ran a story on a conference between Bishop Rino Fisichella, rector of the Lateran University and president of the Rome Diocese’s Commission for Ecumenism and Dialogue, and Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni of Rome. According to Zenit "The conference was held in preparation for the Day of Dialogue with Jews, which the Church in Italy will observe on Saturday."

        Bishop Fisichella declared that the purpose of the conference was "not only to recall that we are friends and brothers, but also to make visible the relationship of friendship." And how do Catholics make "visible" their "relationship of friendship" with the Jews? Zenit reports that Fisichella "gave as an example the commitment made by some Christians in Italy to attend prayers in the synagogue, as a gesture of solidarity after the bloody attacks on two synagogues in Istanbul, Turkey."

        Rabbi Di Segni is quite delighted with such developments. As he put it at the conference: "There has been notable theological progress in Christian theology’s view of Judaism. The document on the Jewish Scriptures, an unprecedented event, gives importance to rabbinic exegesis." The rabbi was referring to the Pontifical Biblical Commission’s document "The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible."

        In other words, the Rabbi is pleased that a Vatican document (with no teaching authority whatsoever, as the Biblical Commission is no longer an arm of the Magisterium, but only a theological think tank whose opinions bind no one) now lends weight to the rabbinical interpretation of the Bible. So much for the Catholic Magisterium!

        The Rabbi made it perfectly clear that "reciprocity at the theological level does not exist," however. That is, under no circumstances will the rabbis give any importance to Catholic exegesis of Scripture. And as far as worship is concerned, says the Rabbi, "Christianity is born from Judaism and, with notable efforts, can introduce elements of Jewish spirituality. The contrary is not possible."

        There we have it: "dialogue" with the Jews is simply and only a one-way street: the Catholic Church must accept the Jewish doctrine and worship, but the Jews can never accept the Catholic doctrine or worship in any way. What, then, is the point of this endless "dialogue" with the Jews? Go ask the Vatican apparatus, which has embroiled the Catholic Church in this pointless and destructive activity for the past forty years.

        Meanwhile, aside from the rabbis who are delighted with one (albeit not strictly official) Catholic capitulation after another concerning the Church’s traditional teaching on the Jewish people, there is another delighted beneficiary of all the confusion and erosion of faith the "Catholic-Jewish dialogue" has led to: the one whom Our Lord described as the Father of Lies.