Judaism and Catholic Theology – serie

The Mortara case refers to Pope Pius IX's 1858 removal of a six-year-old Jewish boy, Edgardo Mortara, from his parents in Bologna, Italy. Six years after Edgardo was born, it was reported that the family's Christian housekeeper had baptized the boy after he had fallen ill as an infant and was allegedly in danger of death. Since canon law and civil law stipulated that a baptized child must be raised Catholic, Pius IX used his power as head of the papal states to remove the boy.In advocating for the return of the child, the Mortara's submitted to the Vatican a two-part document, which appealed to the teachings of Thomas Aquinas against baptism of Jewish children invitis parentibus (against the will of the parents). The papal counsel's reply denied the request, citing Aquinas's teaching to argue that Edgardo's baptism was valid, and that he belonged to the Church. Today, some Catholic theologians defend or at least excuse the Pope's decision with appeal to the works of Aquinas. Which side had the correct interpretation of Aquinas's teaching? And how does this answer impact Catholic theology and Catholic Jewish-relations today?The Mortara Case and St. Thomas Aquinas's Defense of Jewish Parental Authority adjudicates the claims of both sides of the debate through an analysis of Aquinas's teaching as it is interpreted in the Italian and Latin original documents from the 1858 case, which are housed in the Vatican Apostolic Archives, and reproduced here, with facing English translations, for the first time. Tapie demonstrates that, for Aquinas, Jewish parental rights are an order of the natural law, which Aquinas likened to a spiritualis uterus (spiritual womb). Through the metaphor of the spiritual womb, Aquinas merged the Roman institution of parental rights with the theological concept of the natural law. Tapie concludes by examining baptism invitis parentibus in the current Code of Canon Law with attention to the Second Vatican Council's teaching on religious freedom and the Jewish people.

The aim of this groundbreaking volume is to "enrich and intensify the theological dimension of the Jewish-Catholic dialogue" called for by the 2015 Vatican document, The Gifts and the Calling of God are Irrevocable by building a bridge between Catholic systematic theology and Catholic- Jewish dialogue. The collection includes 19 essays that facilitate a rigorous exchange between Jewish scholars and Catholic theologians on some of the most difficult questions in Jewish-Christian dialogue. The scholars discuss the relation of the election of Israel to the universality of salvation in Christ, the nature and extent of the Church's mission, the affirmation that God's covenant with the Jewish people has never been revoked, and whether the land of Israel is an aspect of that covenant. The Catholic thinkers included in this volume address these topics with attention to the sources and foundational voices of Catholic theology including St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. Indeed, this important new work is the first volume to address Aquinas on the law in the context of the Jewish-Christian encounter. The Catholic authors follow what might be called the Ratzingerian line of post-conciliar Catholic theological reflection on Jews and Judaism. With some important exceptions, this line has generally lacked exponents in English-speaking theology. The essays raise the question of what theological dialogue is, and how it relates to interreligious dialogue and Catholic systematic theological reflection. Yet difficulties emerge immediately. What is the relationship between internal Catholic theological reflection on Israel and Church and the external interreligious dialogue with rabbinic Judaism and the Jewish people? The volume demonstrates how, in theological dialogue, it becomes clear just how much separates the two traditions despite sharing concepts and the language of Scripture. The essays demonstrate how the challenge of Catholic-Jewish theological dialogue is, in part, keeping open the space for dialogue without minimizing or playing down differences. As Pope Benedict XVI observed, "to be sincere, the existing differences must not be kept silent or minimized: even in things that, due to our intimate conviction of faith, make us different from one another; in fact, precisely in these things, we must respect each other." This volume is needed for any Catholic theological library, and especially those interested in the contemporary Jewish-Christian encounter.