While great strides have been made over the past six decades in relations between the Catholic and Jewish faiths, the two great faith traditions must continuously work together to “learn more about each other, and grow closer together in the process,” Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory said in a March 30 address sponsored by the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) in New York City.

“Catholics and Jews have certainly come a long way in how we see each other, how we talk about each other, and how we work together in the wider world. We need to make sure that we do not take our relationships for granted,” Cardinal Gregory said. “As time moves on, we need to constantly renew and strengthen our relationships, as well as seek to draw more participants into Catholic-Jewish dialogue at the national, regional, and local levels.”

Cardinal Gregory spoke on “The Future of Catholic-Jewish Relations,” at this year’s JTS John Paul II Annual Lecture on Interreligious Understanding. The address was livestreamed and several hundred people tuned in to the virtual event, including viewers in Rome and Jerusalem.

“As we look toward the future, we do so with great confidence that whatever comes, Catholics and Jews in the United States – and hopefully around the world – will be able to build upon the strong foundations that we have established in our dialogues over these past several decades,” he said. “Our experiences together and knowledge of one another will allow us to approach the future as friends, and not as strangers.”

Cardinal Gregory has been active in Catholic-Jewish dialogue for many decades. He previously served as chairman of the United States of Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, and is currently serving his second term as Catholic co-chair of the dialogue between the National Council of Synagogues and the USCCB.

“As we seek to go outside ourselves and serve the world with a common purpose, we will undoubtedly learn more about each other, and grow closer together in the process,” he said. “We have many, many objectives that both of our faiths hold dear, and working together towards a common goal that benefits humanity can only help to unite us.”

He noted that the Vatican II’s document Nostra aetate (“In Our Time”) was partially due to Pope (now Saint) John XXIII’s “deeply held conviction that antisemitism is not consistent with genuine Christian faith.” Nostra aetate is the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions of the Second Vatican Council.

That document prompted many changes in Catholic-Jewish dialogue and “explicitly condemns ‘hatred, persecutions, displays of antisemitism, directed against Jews at any time and any place’,” Cardinal Gregory said. “Popes Saint Paul VI, Saint John Paul II, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and our current Holy Father, Pope Francis have all carried on the work that was begun at the Second Vatican Council. All of these popes have visited Israel in the hopes of building the relationship further. Those visits were held in very high regard. Sixty years later, we can celebrate how far we have come.”

Cardinal Gregory noted that the Holy See’s Dec. 30, 1993 recognition of the State of Israel and its 1998 statement, We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah, “are examples of how patience with each other can lead to real progress.”

While the Vatican prompted bettering Catholic-Jewish relations, Cardinal Gregory said that a number of documents issued by the USCCB – including Catholic school teaching on the Shoah, depictions of the passion of Christ, and the presentation of Jews and Judaism in Catholic preaching – “have been the fruits of our dialogues.”

“We can say that our dialogues have led to tangible results, and have shown us ways in which we can know and appreciate each other more,” Cardinal Gregory said. “In the United States, which has the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, the relationship of the Catholic Church with our Jewish partners is very important. The American context of multiculturalism and religious pluralism also contributes to the need for people of any faith to want to know and work with their neighbors.”

He also praised “documents published by various Jewish groups and individual Jewish scholars in recent years … (that) have encouraged Catholics in our efforts to reach out in fraternity to the Jewish community, which we have received with great gratitude.”

“Catholics are very thankful for the generous response that we have received from our Jewish brothers and sisters to our outreach. They are indications of how our efforts have, at times, been fruitful,” Cardinal Gregory said.

Because of that dialogue between the two faiths, “Catholics and Jews have come to know each other both as colleagues and, more importantly, as friends,” he said.

The cardinal noted that Catholic and Jews are now able to work together “when expressions of intolerance have occurred, as we have sadly seen all too frequently in recent years.”

“With the tragedies at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh (where a gunman opened fire on 54 worshippers, killing one and injuring three), the Chabad of Poway, (California where a gunman pointed a semiautomatic rifle at worshippers, also killing one and injuring three), and the events of two months ago in Colleyville, Texas, (when a gunman held four hostages in an 11-hour standoff at Congregation Beth Israel Synagogue northeast of Fort Worth), we see that the need is greater than ever for solidarity between Catholics and Jews,” he said. “In each circumstance, Catholics on the local and national levels expressed our support and solidarity with our Jewish brothers and sisters.”

He noted that in the case of the Colleyville synagogue standoff, emergency personnel and religious leaders used nearby Good Shepherd Catholic Church as a staging area to rescue the hostages and provide support and assistance to rescuers and family members of the hostages.

He said future Catholic-Jewish dialogue and engagement could be fostered by “reaching the local level in our relationship; going outside of our relationship to serve the wider world; and cultivating and including new participants in our dialogues.”

Cardinal Gregory said that while “very solid documents” have been produced that outline Catholic-Jewish relations, “we must ask ourselves, how many Catholics and Jews actually know about these documents? How often are they referred to in preaching? Are they studied in rabbinical schools, seminaries, and schools of theology? Most important of all, have they impacted our local congregations?”

“The future needs to involve a reception of the teachings that have developed through our years of friendship, not just by the scholars and theologians who collaborated on them, or our dialogues that discuss them, but also by Catholics and Jews in the pew, in society, and in their homes,” Cardinal Gregory said. “It is my hope that the future will include a proclamation of the progress we have made together, on the part of Catholics and Jews everywhere… This would lead to deeper bonds of fraternity and solidarity within our local communities. When Catholics and Jews everywhere are able to view each other, not as strangers but as friends, we will have accomplished our goal.”

Washington’s archbishop noted, “Pope Francis encourages all of us – everyone – not to remain insular, but rather to share our gifts with the wider community. We are discerning how to fulfill what we both view – at times in our own unique ways – a divine mandate to enter into Tikkun Olam, or ‘repair the world,’ together.”

He added that “we have many, many objectives that both of our faiths hold dear, and working together towards a common goal that benefits humanity can only help to unite us.”

“We need to cultivate a desire among our younger people to want to enter into dialogue, both formally and informally… We need to form these new leaders, who will carry on the work that has been done and the progress that has been made over these past few decades,” he said.

The cardinal emphasized that “we also need to constantly sustain and renew our friendships, so that we look upon each other not just as colleagues, but truly as friends, who possess a level of trust in each other, as well as an interest in the challenges that the other faces.”

At the end of his talk, Cardinal Gregory noted that Jews will begin their eight-day celebration of Passover on April 15 and Catholics will begin celebrating Holy Week on April 10, culminating with Easter on April 17.

“Dear friends, we are about to enter a time in the year when Jews and Catholics focus in on important religious events that strengthen and encourage us in our faith,” he said. “As we celebrate them apart from one another, let us also embrace each other … May we never celebrate in isolation without lifting one another up in prayer and gratitude.”