The Vatican Council: A Vote Against Prejudice

“What happened to Christ in his Passion cannot be attributed to all Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor to the Jews of today.”

By a vote of 1,763 to 250, the bishops at the fourth session of the Second Vatican Council last week approved this statement as the official teaching of the church. In accepting the declaration on non-Christian religions, the bishops made unmistakably clear the intention of the church to risk no further charge of antiSemitism. Also taking into account the Jewish suffering under the Nazis, the declaration deplored “hatred persecutions, displays of antiSemitism. directed against Jews at any time and by anyone,” and rejected any catechetical teaching or preaching that might counter this view.

No Deicide. The text was the fourth presented to the council. The first one, prepared at the behest of Pope John’ was a brief but forthright statement clearing the Jews of “deicide” in the death of Jesus; it was written by Augustun Cardinal Bea, chief of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity. Between the second and third sessions of the council, however, conservatives succeeded in getting a new draft that softened the references to Judaism and incorporated them within the framework of a longer declaration outlining the church’s attitude toward other non-Christian faiths—including Islam. This draft was denounced violently by a number of cardinals, notably Boston’s Richard Gushing, and was sent back to the secretariat for further revision. The bishops then approved in principle another draft that once more expressly said that neither the Jews of today nor those of the time of Jesus could be accused of deicide.

It was the word deicide that most troubled Catholic conservatives; to them, its use suggested a denial of the Gospel accounts of the Passion. Arab diplomats, with strong moral support from Catholic bishops in their countries, lobbied at the Vatican against the declaration on the ground that it could be construed as pro-Israel propaganda Shortly before the fourth session began, “deicide,” at Pope Paul’s suggestion, was again excised; the secretariat also indicated that the declaration was prompted “not by political reasons but by the Gospels’ spiritual love.” In compensation, the final draft included the first specific mention of antiSemitism.

Act of Justice. Although he was opposed to the changes, Cardinal Bea urged the bishops to approve the draft, arguing that the rewording did not affect the basic intent and merely stressed “those things which unite men and lead to mutual fellowship.” Predictably, Jewish organizations responded favorably to the vote for the declaration, although their enthusiasm was something less than ecstatic. That there should be debate at all on the question of Jewish guilt seemed wrong to some; others felt that the bishops had compromised by adopting a statement that was less forthright and to the point than it might be. Particularly annoying were the omission of the deicide clause, and a reference to “Jewish authorities” and their followers who had pressed for the death of Christ. “Nevertheless,” declared Morris B. Abram, president of the American Jewish Committee, “we view the adoption as an act of justice long overdue.”