Ancient word: Jews, Christians study shared past in Vatican manuscripts

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service

From a dark past of once allowing and ordering the censoring, banning and burning of the Talmud and other Hebrew texts, the Vatican has deepened its decades of fruitful dialogue and cooperation with Jewish leaders with a new interfaith study program.

Some 20 Jewish and Christian scholars began a three-month hybrid course in mid-July at the Vatican Library to dig into more than 1,000 years of teachings contained in more than 800 ancient Hebrew manuscripts from the 9th to 16th centuries housed in its collections.

Launching the start of the program at a news conference in the library’s Barberini hall July 19, Claudio Pszemiarower, president of the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary, called the joint initiative between the Vatican and the seminary “historic.”

The scholar-students of different backgrounds and faiths will follow lectures online and in person by preeminent Jewish and Christian experts, and study together to share and grow in their spiritual and academic interests, he said.

Archbishop Angelo Zani, Vatican archivist and librarian, said the Vatican

Library, which is open to qualified scholars worldwide, is a place of encounter and dialogue in line with Pope Francis’ emphasis on creating a more fraternal world through education and by offering places for different cultures to come together.

The unique initiative came about thanks to the generosity of Pope Francis, Rabbi Ariel Stofenmacher, rector of the

Latin American Rabbinical Seminary in Buenos Aires, told Catholic News Service at the program’s launch at the library.

The future pope, “Cardinal Jorge (Bergoglio) was very well-known to us at the seminary,” which is an important center for Jewish academic and spiritual formation in Latin America, he said. The rector at the time was also the pope’s good friend, Rabbi Abraham Skorka.

When Rabbi Stofenmacher led a delegation from the rabbinical seminary to visit Rome in December, “the pope asked us what we wanted to do specifically” during their visit “and I said I wanted to look at the manuscripts” in the library “because it is our heritage.”

“So he graciously agreed,” the rabbi said. After seeing the collection, Rabbi Stofenmacher thought, “we should do more. So we suggested to the pope and the prefect (of the library) to do a program” that taps into “this absolute richness that the Vatican has here.”

“They amazingly agreed and so here we are!” he beamed. “It’s like a dream come true.”

While the library’s collection is not one of the largest, it is one of the most important in the world, especially for Hebrew manuscripts, U.S.-born Rabbi David Golinkin, president of The Schechter Institutes in Jerusalem, told CNS.

It includes: important commentaries on different parts of the Talmud; one of only two manuscripts in the world of the Jerusalem Talmud; and a 9th- or 10thcentury manuscript of the Sifra, which is “the oldest midrash that exists and might be the oldest Hebrew manuscript

INTERFAITH STUDY CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE in existence, other than the Dead Sea Scrolls,” he said.

One reason these early manuscripts are so important is they reflect the rich variety in Jewish traditions and teachings, Rabbi Claudio Kupchik, senior rabbi of Temple Beth El of Cedarhurst, New York, told CNS.

“The talmudic texts were transmitted orally in a fluid form until quite late,” sometimes past the 9th century, and “that orality allowed for a lot of variation,” which was then written down by hand in manuscript form, he said.

With the advent of the printing press in the 15th century, editors then had to either “condense” different versions or choose just one version to put into print, Rabbi Kupchik said. While printing made texts more widely and cheaply available, “the rainbow of variant texts” found in “the various schools of manuscripts” were lost with the printed form.

Printing also made texts vulnerable to censorship, he said. “Some editions of the Talmud were subject to the censorship of the (Catholic) Church in the past,” and the altered texts and missing passages can be rediscovered in the original manuscripts.

Finally, “a lot was lost with persecutions” and burnings of the Talmud, Rabbi Kupchik said.

The first infamous mass burning of the Talmud took place in Paris in 1242, ordered by King Louis IX. Condemnations of the Talmud were issued over the following centuries by a number of popes, reaching fever pitch during the Counter-Reformation and the

Convention summons Knights of Columbus to discipleship and transformation of world. Nearly 2,300 members of the Knights of Columbus, spouses and family members gathered from all parts of the globe Aug. 1-3 in Orlando, Florida, under the theme “First in faith and charity.” But the unmistakable, uplifting message of the 141st Supreme Convention from start to finish was the power of each Knight — all 2 million in the order — to transform the Church and the world around them by deepening their faith as disciples of Jesus and living out a charity that evangelizes. “We too can do great things, if we allow the Lord into our lives,” Bishop John Noonan of Orlando preached in his homily at the opening Mass he celebrated for the Knights’ convention held at the Orlando World Center Marriott. Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly, addressing the Knights Aug. 1, shared the scope of the Knights’ work that year — $185 million given to charity, 49 million volunteer hours and $121 billion of life insurance in force — but also connected it to their faith in Jesus and the importance of deepening it. Each day also had Mass, confession, and ample time for Eucharistic adoration.

Pittsburgh synagogue shooter’s death sentence is the first under the Biden administration. A federal death sentence for the man convicted of a 2018 mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue marks the first such penalty sought for and won by the Biden administration, despite President Joe Biden’s pledge as a candidate to end the practice at the federal level. A jury on Aug. 2 recommended Robert Bowers be sentenced to death for his conviction in killing 11 worshippers at a synagogue in the city’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood in October 2018. Bowers posted antisemitic and white supremacist views online before targeting the Tree of Life synagogue, prosecutors said. He also wounded two worshippers and five responding police officers in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history. Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network, which advocates against the death penalty, offered prayers for the victims and survivors, but said the sentence “sends a mixed message” from the administration on the subject.

Pope Julius III ordered the confiscation and burning of the Talmud and other Jewish texts, resulting in a public burning Sept. 9 on Rosh Hashanah in 1553 in Rome’s Campo dei Fiori.

Today, a brass plaque in Italian, with two quotations in Hebrew, marks the site, in the shadow of a statue dedicated to Giordano Bruno, a philosopher and cosmologist condemned by the Inquisition and burned at the stake in the square in 1600.

Rabbi Golinkin estimates “around one third of the Hebrew manuscripts in the Vatican were captured in

Box office hit “Sound of Freedom” draws kudos and concerns from human trafficking experts. A summer box office hit is garnering kudos and concerns for its approach to the issue of child trafficking. “Sound of Freedom,” starring Jim Caviezel, has edged out both the latest “Mission Impossible” and “Indiana Jones” releases to notch the fourth spot in IMDb’s July 28-30 rankings, with distributor Angel Studios projecting close to $150 million in ticket sales so far. Produced by Eduardo Verástegui and directed by Alejandro Monteverde, the film casts Caviezel as Tim Ballard, a former undercover operative for the U.S. Child Sex Tourism Jump Team who went on to form the private Operation Underground Railroad foundation, which assists international governments and U.S. law enforcement in dismantling criminal trafficking organizations that target children. Verástegui told OSV News he believes “movies can move people” to take action, and that he wants to “give a voice to those who don’t have a voice.” But several anti-trafficking organizations have taken issue with the film’s approach. “(It) reflects the experience of one person and situation, not the trends and patterns that comprise the majority of human trafficking cases. It should only be taken as one story,” said Rafael FloresAvalos, director of bilingual communications for the Washington-based Polaris Project, which since 2007 has operated the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline and has since built the largest known dataset on human trafficking in North America.

New metal fence is a sign of worsening conditions for Holy Land Christians. The Stella Maris Carmelite monastery has seen destruction and banishment over its centuries’ old history, dating back to mid-13th century. The recent attempts by a group of Jewish religious extremists to declare the monastery a Jewish holy site has, however, for the first time led to the monks installing metal fencing around its entrance. “I understand this is to keep those extremists we don’t want out, but the problem is the fence also keeps the community out,” said Rania Lahem, 47, a member of the Haifa Christian community. “For us as Christians this is a very popular holy site for all denominations. We come here often as a family.” And indeed, war in Germany in, I believe, Heidelberg” in the 17th century as part of military campaigns between the Spanish Empire and Protestant states.

Others were “confiscated by the Catholic Church from individual Jews” all over Europe and around the Mediterranean at many different times, he said, “so there’s no country to repatriate them to, though, in theory, they could repatriate them to a specific family that owned the manuscript. But I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

For now, the Hebrew manuscripts are well-preserved, well-cataloged, available online and in person to scholars. And the new joint study program between the Vatican and the rabbinical seminary invites Jews and Christians to study them together.

The dialogue and collaboration “since ‘Nostra Aetate’ of the Second Vatican Council is allowing us to rediscover not only the wealth we can gather from our relationship with each other but also the wealth of our traditions and texts,” Rabbi Kupchik said.

“The texts are a window to the past and that past had wonderful blessings and sometimes difficulties,” he said. “We need to try to recover the blessings and understand the difficulties of the past” in order to understand “why things evolved the way they did and which kind of choices we ought to make” for a better future.

Rabbi Stofenmacher said this initiative is only the beginning. He is calling for a similar program for Muslim, Jewish and Christian scholars to study the Vatican’s Islamic texts together. “When there’s collaboration, the sky’s the limit.” the mountaintop monastery at Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel, facing the sea, has been a place of pilgrimage and tours for peoples of all faiths. Jewish, Christian and Muslim residents of the surrounding neighborhood took pride and respected the beauty and tranquility of the monastery in their midst. In early May, however, a few fringe members of the Breslov ultraorthodox sect began arriving at the monastery, claiming it was a Jewish holy site and the burial site of the prophet Elisha, the successor of the prophet Elijah — both of whom are venerated by Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Restoration and repairs are underway at Minnesota church after arson destroyed sacristy. The sacristy was destroyed at St. Edward Church in Elmdale in the Diocese of St. Cloud and other parts of the building were damaged by a mid-July fire that firefighters determined was set intentionally. Repairs are underway, and the Morrison County Sheriff’s Office is currently investigating a suspect, but that is all that is known right now, according to Father Jimmy Joseph, who was assigned pastor of St. Edward just three weeks before the July 18 blaze. In the parish’s Sunday bulletin, Father Joseph reported July 30, “We have met with the insurance adjusters and building inspector. The pews have been removed for cleaning. The statues are being sent to a company in the (Twin Cities) for restoration. This is a restoration, maintenance, repair project so we won’t know yet how long it will take. We need prayers and support for the people and the church. The rest will happen and is in God’s hands.” The priest discovered the fire as he was locking the church doors for the evening, and firefighters were called to the scene about 5:30 p.m.

Black Catholics at national congress reflect on their calling: ”The Church needs our gifts.” As people left the July 23 closing Mass for the National Black Catholic Congress, Vernon Taylor of St. Joseph in Wilmington, Delaware, said he was moved particularly at the end of Mass when Washington Auxiliary Bishop Roy Campbell Jr., the congress’ president, invited any young people considering a vocation to the priesthood or religious life to come up for a blessing — and some young adults, teens and children stepped forward. The event offered a time for participants to reflect on the legacy of the six U.S. Black Catholics being considered for sainthood. Sister Stephanie Henry from Philadelphia, the president of the Blessed Sacrament Sisters founded by St. Katharine Drexel, said she had met and spoken with one of those potential saints, Sister Thea Bowman. “Her whole being radiated praise and joy,” Sister Stephanie said.

— OSV News