A day of dialogue


On the Feast of Saint Joseph, Father David received two invitations to address two different audiences, one in Hebrew and one in Arabic. He sent in this report.

On March 19, 2014, the Feast of Saint Joseph, I was invited to address the Reform rabbis in Israel who were gathered for their assembly in Kibbutz Ruhama in the Negev. They expressed interest to hear about Pope Francis and his teaching, particularly teaching expressed in the Exhortation, Joy of the Gospel.

I began with an initial reading of the three paragraphs that deal with the relationship between Jews and Catholics (numbers 247-249, read here). I then gave same general background on the Pope, explaining the novelty for the Church of having a Latin American Pope who is also a member of a religious order and a Jesuit to boot. I then tried to put his teaching into a wider Church context: the developments after the Second Vatican Council, the crises that emerged during the Pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI and the developments in the Latin American Church concerning “the preferential option for the poor”.

After this rather long introduction, we read together parts of the Exhortation concerning the mission of the Church in today’s world. The discussion was rich and engaged with these Israeli Reform rabbis trying to derive their own lessons within their own context from the words of the Pope.

After ending the session with the rabbis, I rushed back to Jerusalem as I had been invited that afternoon to address a class taught by well known Palestinian academic and social and political activist Professor Bernard Sabella at the Al-Quds University campus in the Old City on the Hebrew speaking Christians in the State of Israel. This class is part of a MA program in Jerusalem Studies and the students, all Muslims from East Jerusalem except for one Christian, listened attentively to a survey of the history of the Hebrew speaking Christians in the State of Israel. After a series of introductory remarks introduced the theme and placed it within the historical context of the Church in the Holy Land, the discussion was fascinating and focused on the social, cultural, political and religious issues that intertwine in the life of a city that is home to so many diverse and sometimes conflicting groups.

This was an intense day of boundary crossing and dialogue, so many reasons to thank the Lord and so many reasons to keep up the prayers that wounds might heal and hearts might open.

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