Document on Judaism does not reflect views of American bishops. (News in Brief).

Washington--On August 12, a document entitled "Reflections on Covenant and Mission" was issued by the American Bishops Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. It represented the results of a year-long dialogue between the Church and the Jewish community and rejects any further attempts at converting Jews to Christianity, because, it argued, God's covenant with the Jews is still valid and requires no further elaboration through Jesus.

This document does not represent a formal position of the U.S. Bishops' Conference, said Cardinal William Keeler of Washington. He said that there has been growing respect within the Catholic community for the Jewish tradition and the lasting covenant which God made with the Jews. At the same time, the faithful should be open to God's grace to bring people to accept the fullness of the means of salvation which are found in the Church.

Comment:

The document represents the thinking of certain people--mostly academics-- who have been anxiously pursuing the Jewish-Catholic reconciliation which began with the Second Vatican Council. This process has made great strides forward but the above document is a first and serious misstep, caused I believe, by those who have begun to question the inerrancy of Sacred Scripture.

In their anxiety to find common ground they want to remove sections and wordings of the New Testament in order to smooth dialogue. They wind up "correcting' the role of Christ as Messiah and universal Redeemer. One such text is the following from 2 Corinthians, 3: 7-8:

"Our hope being such, we act with full confidence. We are not like Moses, who used to hide his face with a veil so that the israelites could not see the final fading of that glory. Their minds, of course, were dulled. To this very day, when the old covenant is read the veil remains unlifted; it is only in Christ that it is taken away."