THIRD VISIT TO A SYNAGOGUE
On January 17, 2010, the Pope followed the example of his predecessor, John Paul II, and visited the synagogue of Rome. There is nothing new in this, since he had visited the synagogues in Cologne in 2005 and New York in 2008. Of interest, however, is his insistence on Vatican II, from which comes “our irrevocable commitment to purse the path of dialogue, fraternity and friendship” (zenit.org; 2010-01-17).
His discourse at the synagogue quotes two prayers, both prayed at the western wall in Jerusalem, the first by John Paul II in 2000, and the second by himself in May 2009. In neither of them is there any mention of Christ Our Lord, through Whom alone our prayers are acceptable to God the Father (cf. Jn 14:6 “No man cometh to the Father, but by me”; Jn 15:16 “that whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you”; Act 4:12 “Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved”). Instead he professes “to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant”, as did John Paul II. However, the Old Covenant, the Law, has been perfected and made void by the New Covenant (Heb 9:14 & 15). How can the Israelites be considered the people of the Covenant, when they refused the New Covenant, and did not even respect the Old (Act 7:53), by putting to death the Just One prophesied in it?
Then the Pope dared to promote “a renewed respect for the Jewish interpretation of the Old Testament” (5), although the materialistic interpretation of the Jews refuses all the messianic references to Christ and all preparation for the New Testament. Moreover, he went on to state that “Christians and Jews share to a great extent a common spiritual patrimony, they pray to the same Lord…” (9), a statement which is manifestly false. The Jews explicitly refuse the Trinity, the one true God. They explicitly refuse the divinity of Christ, to Whom we pray and through Whom we are bound to pray to the Father. Who cannot see that this dialogue is at the expense of grave indifferentism. The Jewish religion is presented as if it were a perfectly valid covenant between God and man, equally able to bring man into contact with the true God, so that people are perfectly free to choose whichever religion they prefer.
Answered by Father Peter Scott, SSPX.