Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies Board of Directors
Plans for the Future

The Board of Directors of the Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies (CCJS) recently held its annual meeting on the campus of Saint Leo University.  In attendance were a selection of university students from the undergraduate and graduate theology programs.  Carmen Cayon, a graduate of the Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies program, gave a beautiful presentation on the religious symbolism and theological significance of the Grand Synagogue in Florence, Italy.  Ms. Cayon's presentation was based on her original research for a course she completed on Catholic-Jewish relations. The course, titled  "Abraham's Tent: Christians and Jews in Dialogue," was developed and taught by Saint Leo professors, Dr. Tyson Anderson and Linda Taggart, Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors for CCJS. The course was underwritten in part by a grant from the Center for Catholic Jewish studies.

In addition to these exciting opportunities to join theological and interreligious education for a diverse student population, the Center also shares faculty and staff with Saint Leo's Graduate Theology Program in the academic formation of Catholic deacons throughout the region.  This relationship with future Church leaders is a tremendous opportunity to realize the mission of interfaith understanding and respect. 

Among other business, board members discussed new opportunities in leadership and exciting new projects for the future.    

AJC Welcomes Clarification of Easter Prayer

Rabbi David Rosen, International Director of Interreligious Affairs for The American Jewish Committee, expressed satisfaction with the recent Vatican clarification regarding the Good Friday prayer for the conversion of Jews to Christianity.1

The revised prayer, which is part of the liturgy celebrated according to the 1962 Roman Missal, has been the occasion of a recent interruption of Catholic Jewish dialogue.

The AJC was among those who called for a clarification regarding the meaning and implications of the prayer and its retention in the Latin liturgy after so much progress in Catholic Jewish relations in the forty-two years since the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions (Nostra Aetate).

The official clarification was sent to the Chief Rabbis of Israel by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's Secretary of State.  It contained the earlier clarification issued by Cardinal Walter Kasper, according to which the prayer expresses an eschatological hope and has no practical implications for historical Catholic Jewish relations.2