Good News: We’re In With the Catholics!

So, I don’t know how reliable this source is, but according to The Religious Write blog, written by Barney Zwartz, an Australian religion reporter for The Age newspaper, Catholics are no longer interested in converting Jews. Here are the details:

The Catholic Church officially no longer tries to convert Jews to Christianity, according to Cardinal Edward Cassidy, the Australian who became the third-highest prelate in the Vatican. Addressing a mostly Jewish audience of several hundred at the Holocaust Centre in Elsternwick on Tuesday night, Cardinal Cassidy said the Vatican II council of the 1960s ended the charge of deicide against the Jews over the death of Jesus Christ, but it had taken decades to work through the church. (It was rebutted in a famous Vatican II document Nostra Aetate.)

"Campaigns that target Jews for conversion are no longer theologically acceptable," said the now-retired cardinal, 83, who was president of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity.

The Catholic Church taught that salvation is found only in Christ through the church, but Cardinal Cassidy said it now accepted that the Jews were saved by their (Old Testament) covenant with God.

"There have been many reflections in the past decade, including a deepening Catholic appreciation of the covenant between God and the Jews and their role as witness of God's faithful love," Cardinal Cassidy said.

Full Story. Emphasis mine. While I’m relieved to be off the hook in terms of the Jesus thing, I’m thinking a lot about missionary work in general, and also about how important it is to me to never ever missionize. Catholics, if I’m not mistaken, have been pretty heavily involved in missionary work in the past. And in the process they’ve done lots of good, and some bad, as well. You may recall the Inquisition, for instance. I do recognize the desire to share your faith and community with another person seeking friends and comfort. When I invite someone over for Shabbat dinner, that’s pretty much what I have in mind. But missionizing, the idea of going out there and trying to get more people for this Jew Team…blech! It’s cheesy and depressing, right? It seems like a disingenuous thing to do if you’re not a hundred percent confident about your faith, and I don't know too many people who are that confident about God.  I also tend to find missionary work to be manipulative, offensive, or rude. Missionaries get shipped off to teach natives about Jesus, which they do with the help of shiny new western tools and tricks. Once the natives are addicted to whatever the missionaries have brought they’re very willing to buy the Jesus story, too. And those guys who pass out pamphlets in the subway or stand in Times Square with a megaphone screaming about how we’re all damned…they irritate and offend me. Random guys on the street don’t get to tell me I’m going to hell. And I wonder how effective they are, too. On the other hand, it does seem like a lot of people change for the better when they find religion. Certainly there are some great missions out there doing good work aside from converting the masses. So what do you guys think about missionaries? Any great strategies for dealing with pushy Jesus-freaks (though at least now if they’re Catholic we don’t have to worry)?