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Rabbi David Sandmel's Report on the Rabbinic Committee for Interreligious Dialogue

January 28, 2002

The Rabbinic Committee for Interreligious Dialogue meeting was jointly sponsored by the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding at Sacred Heart, the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College, the Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the Center for Interreligious Understanding.
The meeting consisted of three sessions. In the first session, Cardinal Walter Kaspar and Rabbi Norman Solomon presented papers on the concept of covenant in Judaism and Christianity. In the second session, Blu Greenberg and Mary Boys offered responses, and in the third session, Phil Cunningham and David Sandmel responded.

There were several issues that I think would be of interest to members of the Commission. First, Cardinal Kaspar made a clear and unequivocal statement that "Torah is a path to salvation." This is significant because it directly responds to the question of whether, according to Roman Catholic theology, faith in Jesus Christ is a prerequisite for salvation. Prior Vatican documents have skirted this touchy theological issue, making positive statements about Jews and Judaism and citing Paul's Epistle to the Romans that the promises of God are irrevocable, but no document (as far as I know) has ever stated this as boldly as the Cardinal did. It will be interesting to see whether this will be repeated in more "official" settings and documents in the future. It does suggest that Kaspar is someone with whom the Jewish community can work, at least on this issue.

The Cardinal also said, "Dialogue has nothing to do with proselytism." This is, in part, a response to some of the uproar over Dominus Iesus, which stated that Roman Catholics participate in interfaith dialogue as part of mission. In the discussion, the Cardinal was pushed by myself, Phil Cunningham, and Gene Fisher (and others, I believe) as to whether the Vatican could issue an official statement specifically stating that the Roman Catholic church does not view missionizing Jews as a necessity and laying out the reasons why. I understand that the Cardinal took these remarks very seriously and was considering the issue. Needless to say, the Vatican is not likely to move quickly on any pronouncement, but it this is noteworthy.

The Cardinal made several statements about Judaism that were factually incorrect. One was that "Judaism today seems to find it impossible to recognize any non-Jewish religion as a religion; pious Jews consider non-Jewish religions as idolatries." In my response, I offered a correction to this comment. He also expressed interest in what "a Jewish interpretation of Christianity - an interpretation open to dialogue - would be like," as if there were no such thing. I pointed out that the volume Michael Signer and I (and a few others) edited, Christianity in Jewish Terms, did just this sort of thing. He had not heard of it; fortunately the Center at Sacred Heart University had several copies and gave him one.