The Problem with the Jews at the Council

On November 20, 1964, the conference of bishops, archbishops and cardinals from all around the world, meeting in Council in Rome proposed a schema on the attitude and position of the Catholic Church concerning Jews and Judaism. Behind an innocent appearance of ecumenical unity, of Christian charity, of common spiritual affiliation and of the reconciliation of the churches, this schema implies an act of the gravest consequence, since it implicitly asserted that for 2,000 years the Church was in error in this regard, and that it ought then to repair and completely revise its behavior toward the Jews. This objective satisfied the powerful propaganda in those years by the spokesman of the great international Jewish organizations, which sought to obtain a “review and a purification” of the Christian teaching in respect to Judaism. This schema immediately aroused some violent reactions in the Muslim world and among Catholics of the Eastern Rite. John XXIII thought that this matter, required mature reflection.