The order, established in 1831, recognises personal service or unusual labour in support of the Catholic Church.

Rabbi A. James Rudin, the longtime interreligious affairs director for the American Jewish Committee, is about to join the few to be honoured in this way. The reason - his decades of work on Jewish-Catholic relations.

A Reform rabbi and also a writer, Rudin has contributed hundreds of columns over the years to the Religion News Service publication.

He has travelled widely, meeting with popes, presidents, Protestant denominational leaders and world-famous evangelists. His aim every time: to improve Jewish-Christian relations in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust.

"For more than 50 years, Rabbi James Rudin has worked to advance Catholic-Jewish relations and interfaith relations on a wider scale, with extraordinary skill, dedication, and success," says Cardinal Sean O'Malley, archbishop of Boston.

"The impact of this work continues to grow as successive generations build on the foundation Rabbi Rudin has established."

Rudin, 88, says his relations with Catholics go back to his youth in Virginia, when Jews and Catholics were vastly outnumbered by white evangelicals who viewed them with a certain disdain.

Rudin, the only Jew in his grade school class, had to leave the room during a reading of the New Testament. So did his two Catholic classmates.

"That was my first introduction to Catholic-Jewish relations: little kids singled out and humiliated standing outside the classroom," Rudin says.

Later, as an Air Force chaplain in Japan and Korea, his closest colleague was a Catholic priest. They cooperated on Catholic-Jewish programming together.

He joined the American Jewish Committee in 1968. There he developed a close working relationship with another priest, John O'Connor, who went on to become archbishop of New York and ultimately a cardinal.

Rudin also co-founded the St Leo University's Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies, where he has taught Judaism for several years.
His papal knighthood investiture will take place at the Center on 20 November.

O'Malley will represent Pope Francis at the ceremony.

Rabbi Eric J. Greenberg, who helped nominate Rudin for the knighthood, says the honour comes at a critical time of growing antisemitism.

"This knighthood clearly demonstrates the evolving positive relations between Catholics and Jews," says Greenberg. He is the director of United Nations relations and strategic partnerships for the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

"Rabbi Rudin well deserves this historic, international honour."

Source

• Religion News Service

He was responding to a newspaper article alleging he favoured missionising the Jews and called Jewish-Christian dialogue into question.

Benedict's correction affirms Christians are called to a "dialogue" with the Jews rather than a "mission," as theologian Michael Böhnke claimed in German theological journal "Herder Korrespondenz."

He also explains Judaism and Christianity are "two ways of interpreting the Scriptures."

He says for Christians, the promises made to Israel are the hope of the Church, and "those who abide by it are in no way questioning the foundations of the Jewish-Christian dialogue."

Böhnke had argued that Benedict XVI, in an article for the theological journal Communio, had demonstrated a problematic understanding of Judaism and had ignored the suffering Christians had inflicted upon Jews."

Benedict says Böhnke's accusation is "grotesque nonsense and has nothing to do with what I said about it. I therefore reject his article as a completely false insinuation."

Regarding the Church's "mission" to the Jews, Benedict says "A mission to the Jews is not foreseen and not necessary."

Benedict explains that while it is true Christ gave His disciples a mission to all peoples and all cultures, "the missionary mandate is universal - with one exception:

"A mission to the Jews was not foreseen and not necessary because they alone, among all peoples, knew the ‘unknown God'."

Benedict's explanation continues, saying for Israel, the disciples' responsibility was not a mission, but a dialogue about whether Jesus of Nazareth was "the Son of God, the Logos," for whom, according to the promises made to His people, Israel, and the whole world without knowing it, was waiting.

This is "the duty given us at this time," Benedict says.

Source

• The Tablet
• Vatican News
• Image: Catholic News Agency