International Conference honoring Pope John XXIII in Jerusalem

The international conference was sponsored by the American Jewish Congress, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Tel Aviv University and Yad Vashem and drew a number of leading Catholic and Jewish religious authorities.

The opening session included brief addresses by the director of the Adenauer Stiftung in Israel, Mr. Michael Mertes, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal (see his words here), Rabbi Shear Yeshuv Cohen, Emeritus Chief Rabbi of Haifa and Mrs. Colette Avital, Chairperson of the Centre of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel. There was also a recorded message from State president Shimon Peres, who described Pope John as a man of freedom, leading his people out of slavery. The chair of this session was Yair Tsaban, a former government minister and member of Knesset, who called Pope John “our admired brother”.

The first session focused on Roncalli (Pope John was Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli) and the Shoah. The two speakers were Prof. Yehuda Bauer from Hebrew University and Prof. Dina Porat from Tel Aviv University, both renowned academic authorities on the Shoah. Bauer presented the general background to the actions of Christians during the Shoah with regard to the Jews. He tried to analyze what made a Christian risk his or her life to save Jews and what made a Christian turn his or her back on a Jew, giving examples of stories of heroism and of infamy. Porat focused on Roncalli and his actions in saving Jews throughout Europe. She dwelt on the revelations that came from the archives of Haim Barlas, a Jewish Agency official who knew Roncalli when he was Papal Nuncio in Istanbul.

The second session focused on Roncalli and the State of Israel. The three speakers were former member of Knesset, Yair Tsaban, Prof. Uri Bialer from the Hebrew University and Dr. Paolo Zanini from the University of Milan. Tsaban told of the role of the meeting between Roncalli and Moshe Sneh in 1947 in France in advancing Vatican understanding of Zionism. Bialer analyzed the role of Roncalli, pointing out that there is little evidence of any direct role that Roncalli played in the developments that led to the decision on the partition of Palestine and the outbreak of the 1948 War. This was supported by Zanini who gave background to understand Roncalli’s multi-faceted understanding of the Middle East situation – his contacts with Zionists, Arab nationalists and other Middle Eastern communities.

The third session focused on Nostra Aetate and the Second Vatican Council and was chaired by Cardinal Peter Turkson of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. The four speakers were Prof. Albert Melloni, an Italian professor of history, Ms. Claire Maligot from Paris, Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land and Ms. Yisca Harani, an Israeli expert on the Church and Christianity. Melloni described the various aspects of the Second Vatican Council. He described the detailed and complex diaries of Roncalli and how he was driven by a vision of “greater faithfulness to the Gospel”. Maligot described Jewish reactions to the Council and Nostra Aetate. Pizzaballa analyzed Nostra Aetate as a revolutionary pastoral document that formulated a new vision for the Church of the Jews. He pointed out that the Church’s understanding of her relationship with the Jews continues to serve as a paradigm for her understanding of other religious traditions too. He made an appeal to renew present dialogue that sometimes seems worn out. Harani described her experience of teaching Jews about the Church and Christianity in the light of Nostra Aetate. She echoed Pizzaballa’s words that much work is still to be done in Israel in order to push ahead a local dialogue between Jews in Israel and the local Christian communities.

The fourth and final session addressed the legacy left by Pope John XXIII. The two speakers were Cardinal Kurt Koch, directly responsible for the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, and Prof. Amos Luzzatto from the Italian Jewish community.

Finally, Rabbi David Rosen, from the American Jewish Congress and the outstanding personality behind the organization of the conference, summed up this day that honored beloved Pope John XXIII, a man who drew Jews and Christians together by his love, humility, courage and perseverance.