In two CW articles (5,12/3/23), Fr John Flader writes about the conversion of Jews to Christianity in such a way as to give the impression that the Catholic Church advocates missionary activity towards Jews, and that Jews need to embrace Jesus to be saved. This impression is wrong on both counts.
The Catholic Church today recognises that the Jewish people are already in a saving relationship with G-d, which is the principal theological reason it refrains from missionary work directed towards Jews.
In 2013, Pope Francis taught:
“We hold the Jewish people in special regard because their covenant with God has never been revoked … As Christians, we cannot consider Judaism as a foreign religion; nor do we include the Jews among those called to turn from idols and to serve the true God…” (EG, 247).
Francis was reinforcing the teaching of Vatican II, anchored in a Pauline text, that G-d’s promises to Israel cannot be negated, “for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11:29; see NA,4; LG,16).
Pope John Paul II made explicit this conciliar teaching in the remarkable theological formula: G-d’s covenant with Israel is “never revoked”. (Addresses at Mainz, 1980; Mt Sinai, 2000; Sydney, 1986; cf. Catechism, #121).
The significance of this teaching is immense. Even as the Church proclaims Jesus to be the Messiah and Son of God, Catholics recognise that G-d’s covenant with the Jewish people remains in force; indeed, is eternal.
Read the article by Peter Wertheim in The Catholic Weekly.