Remembering the Past, Living the Present, Shaping the Future: Catholic-Jewish Dialogue in Australia

There is no doubt that the positive relationship that exists today between Catholic and Jewish individuals and communities is due in large part to Nostra Aetate and to the Catholic Church’s commitment to ongoing Catholic-Jewish dialogue.1

This research focuses on relevant key issues suggested by the practical, political theology of Johann Baptist Metz and on the significance of his key categories of memory, narrative and solidarity as they relate to both Catholic and Jewish theology.

While Receptive Ecumenism is directly concerned with developing more contemporary ways of engaging ecumenically with other Christian groups, the premise of this study is that the transfer of the principles of Receptive Ecumenism to inter-religious dialogue, particularly Catholic-Jewish dialogue, is a possibility.2

The thesis argues that the principles of Receptive Ecumenism have the ability to enhance existing Jewish-Catholic relations and to provide systematic and improved dialogue opportunities in the future. As a result of reflecting on the past, the present and the possible future of Australian Catholic-Jewish dialogue, this study is better positioned to suggest options for more positive, productive dialogue for the future.

The findings of this research have validated the conviction that the security and advancement of the existing Catholic-Jewish inter-religious relationship in Australia is contingent on the development of contemporary, appropriate, effective and vigorous inter-religious education and collaboration.

1 Vatican II Council, Nostra Aetate (hereafter NA), Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, in The Documents of Vatican II, with Notes and Comments by Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Authorities, ed Walter Abbott, S.J., (London and Dublin: Chapman, 1966), 660-668.

2 Paul Murray, ed. With the assistance of Luca Badini-Confalonieri, Receptive Ecumenism and the Call to Catholic Learning: Exploring a Way for Contemporary Ecumenism. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).