|
STATEMENTS
|
|
Declaration on the
occasion of the
cancellation of the
excommunication of
the Society of St.
Pius X by the Board
of Directors and
Editors of Concilium
|
|
In the
face of
the
cancellation
of the
excommunication
of the
four
bishops
of the
Society
of St.
Pius X (SSPX),
the
repeated
denial
by
Richard
Williamson
of the
killing
of six
million
Jews,
many in
the gas
chambers
of the
Nazi
extermination
camps,
one of
the
bishops
of that
Society,
and also
in the
face of
the wide
abhorrence
this
occasioned
inside
and
outside
the
Roman
Catholic
Church,
we, the
board of
directors
and
editors
of
Concilium
–
International
Journal
for
Theology,
feel
obliged
to:
|
| |
|
Reaffirm our dedication to furthering the course taken by the Roman Catholic Church at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965): ‘reading the signs of the times’ in the light of the Gospel;
|
|
Express our conviction that dialogue with other religions and spiritual traditions is an important aspect of the heritage of the Council, and that dialogue with Jews is a special obligation ‘since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is… so great’, as the declaration of the relation of the Church to non-Christian religions, Nostra aetate testifies;
|
|
Stress that facing and confessing the responsibility of Catholics, their leaders and their Church for major atrocities and catastrophes in human history, is an important aspect of this new course taken by the Council; and that Nostra aetate’s message that ‘the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews… decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone’, is credible only if accompanied by repentance over what has been said and done in the past;
|
|
State that, given the fact that many who live in conflict with what is presented as official teaching find a deaf ear with the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, we are extremely uncomfortable with the cancellation of the excommunication of the bishops of the Society of St. Pius X, that rejects the Second Vatican Council in general and Nostra aetate in particular, and whose leaders and representatives have repeatedly defended the idea that all Jews, including the ones living today, are responsible for the death of Jesus Christ unless they explicitly confess him as the Messiah, and that the Jews are justly punished by God through their ongoing history of persecution and suffering.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
By the
worldwide
and
intensive
debate
after
Pope
Benedict
XVI’s
decision
to lift
the
excommunication
of the
Society
of St.
Pius X,
we feel
compelled
and
encouraged
to move
forward
in the
task of
developing
a
theology
that is
open to
whatever
and
wherever
the
truth
may lead
us,
although
we do
not
always
know
where
that may
be and
know
that it
may not
always
be an
easy
path.
But we
sincerely
believe
it to be
part of
our
Christian
and
Catholic
faith
that
only the
truth
will
make us
free
(John 8:
32).
Concilium
–
International
Journal
for
Theology
Board of
Directors
and
Editors |
|
|
|
|