Back on February 15th, in the wake of the Bishop Williamson debacle, RWB took note of how a blow-up seemed to be morphing into an instance of real and important progress in Jewish/Catholic (and by extension Jewish/Christian) relations. It was after Pope Benedict XVI had met with some visiting American Jewish religious leaders and had made what I thought to be theologically significant remarks. I opined then:

There are a lot of things being said here, and hopefully this mismanaged piece of housekeeping (the un-excommunication of some renegades) by the Vatican will end as a net positive, with crucial issues being publicly addressed in a fairly definitive way.

Well, there’s no longer any question that this is how this event is truly playing out, and it is a very good thing indeed. Last Thursday, Pope Benedict met at the Vatican with a delegation from the Israeli rabbinate, in advance of his planned trip to Israel in May. The Israeli rabbinate had been so outraged by the decision to un-excommunicate Williamson that official relations with the Vatican were cut off. As described by David P. Goldman at First Things in his post “A ‘Turning Point’ in Catholic-Jewish relations, things have assuredly changed:

Benedict told the Israeli group, “The Jewish people, who were chosen as the elected people, communicate to the whole human family knowledge of and fidelity to the one, unique and true God,” the Jerusalem Post reported. That is perhaps the strongest statement on the subject of Jewish election by any pope in history. From the Jewish side, Rabbi Cohen told the press that the Jews “couldn’t expect more” from the Pope, which must be the first time in history that a Jewish leader has been left with nothing to complain about with respect to the Catholic Church.

Benedict has succeeded in turning what was universally perceived as a disaster for Catholic-Jewish relations after the Williamson incident into a major victory, re-establishing trust with Jewish leaders in a more profound way than existed before.

This is important in a way that goes beyond politics and diplomacy, to something more fundamental, i.e. theology. And theology is the most important thing, in the long term, when it comes to relations between those of different faiths. That might seem obvious, but it is not. (Look at to what degree matters of theology are completely ignored when most people consider the relationship of Muslims to those of other faiths.)

Pope Benedict also wrote a genuinely extraordinary and poignant letter to his bishops on March 10th, explaining both his original reasons for lifting the excommunication of those renegades, and explaining the mistakes that were made in the process (failure to Google the Williamson guy!), and the pain caused to him and to others by the episode. It reads as a letter from a truly open heart, and should also stand as a remarkable example to his bishops of how to communicate straightforwardly when addressing matters of controversy.

So, history is being made, and in a perverse way we have Bishop Williamson to thank for it, but we can probably save the flowers.

Something that someone else once said is what comes to my mind right now: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Romans 11:33)

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