Rabbi warns Vatican of threats to interfaith dialogue

VATICAN CITY (RNS) A prominent Italian rabbi has warned that the Vatican’s approach to interfaith dialogue under Pope Benedict XVI could undo half a century of progress in Jewish-Catholic relations. Rabbi Elia Enrico Richetti, chief rabbi of Venice, made the comments in a guest editorial for the January issue of the Italian Jesuit magazine, “Popoli.” […]

VATICAN CITY (RNS) A prominent Italian rabbi has warned that the Vatican’s approach to interfaith dialogue under Pope Benedict XVI could undo half a century of progress in Jewish-Catholic relations.

Rabbi Elia Enrico Richetti, chief rabbi of Venice, made the comments in a guest editorial for the January issue of the Italian Jesuit magazine, “Popoli.”

Explaining why Italian Jewish leaders will not participate in an annual day of interfaith activities with their Catholic counterparts this Saturday (Jan. 17), Richetti emphasized Benedict’s decision in 2007 to revive the so-called Old Latin Mass, which had fallen out of use in the 1960s.


The rite’s Good Friday liturgy includes a prayer calling on God to “enlighten (Jews’) hearts so that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, the savior of all men,” and expresses hope that “all Israel may be saved.”

“If I maintain … that my neighbor should become like me to be worthy of salvation, I don’t respect his identity,” Richetti wrote. “It’s not a question of hypersensitivity, it’s a question of the most banal kind of respect owed to another as a creature of God.”

Richetti suggested that Benedict’s decision to revive the prayer was consistent with a lack of openness to interfaith relations.

“If we add to this the most recent statements by the pope with respect to dialogue, defined as pointless because it is necessary always to testify to the superiority of the Christian faith, it is evident that we are headed to the cancellation of the last 50 years of the church’s history,” the rabbi wrote.

Benedict has often emphasized the limits of interreligious dialogue, which he recently described as “not possible in the strict sense of the term,” and has cautioned against dialogue that can lead to blurring of religious differences.

Catholic leaders will celebrate this Saturday’s “Day of Jewish-Christian Dialogue” despite the lack of full Jewish participation, and insist that ecumenical relations remain healthy.


“This little incident is an occasion for deepening and re-launching, if anything, with greater intelligence and boldness, that dialogue that for 50 years now has known extraordinary progress which is without doubt irreversible,” Bishop Vincenzo Paglia, head of the Italian bishops’ ecumenical commission, told Vatican Radio on Wednesday (Jan. 14).

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!