“It is therefore unjust to call this people deicide or to consider it cursed by God.” (8 November 1963 press release)

For the first time in 2,000 years the Second Vatican Council removed and reversed much of its teaching on the culpability of the Jewish people in the death of Yeshua, recognising the universal responsibility of all humanity, and renouncing much of the prejudice and stereotyping of Jews and Judaism. The decisions came in stages, took much planning and lobbying behind the scenes, and continues to be worked out in the context of Catholic-Jewish and Catholic-Messianic Jewish relations today. Do pray for ongoing meetings within Catholic, Jewish and Messianic Jewish circles about how the teaching and work that went into the Declaration on the Catholic Church and the Jewish people may be taken further today.

Here is a contemporary report of the November 8th release of some of the Council’s decisions.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for the grounbreaking steps taken by the Catholic church to roll back 20 centuries of supersessionist teaching, including the stereotyping of Jewish people, the ‘teaching of contempt’, and the anit-judaism and anti-semitism that so often accompanied official church teaching. Please continue to heal the schism between the Church and the Jewish people. Please purify our thinking, reconcile us in our conflicts, and heal our wounds, that your people Israel and those who affirm their faith in the Messiah Yeshua may truly be united and reconciled in Him. In our Messiah. Amen.

Further study: John Connelly, From Enemy to Brother