c. 1998 Religion News Service

(Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and a sociologist at the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center. Check out his home page at http://www.agreeley.com or contact him via e-mail at agreel(at)aol.com.)

UNDATED _ Can a person be Jewish and Christian at the same time; can a Jew become a Christian without repudiating the Jewish faith? These complicated questions are at the center of the controversy over the canonization of Edith Stein, the convert from Judaism to Catholicism who died at Auschwitz.

At one time it was possible to be both Jewish and Christian. Now it would appear no longer to be possible. Perhaps some day it might be possible again.

Jesus was Jewish. So were his apostles. They prayed in the synagogue and the temple. It was unthinkable for them not to be Jewish.

Most of the early Christians (no more than a 1,000, it is estimated, by the end of the first Century) were also Jews. They regularly attended synagogue services. Early Christianity was a religious movement within the larger pluralism of Second Temple Judaism.

There was no initial plan to break away from Judaism. Indeed St. John’s community was deeply hurt when they were expelled from their synagogue.

Gradually, however, two of the Second Temple religious movements _ Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism _ evolved into distinctly different religions with rules and structures which came in time to stand in opposition to one another, especially in the Roman Empire.

This was a long process. We know that as late at the 4th century relations between the two emerging faiths were cordial in some places. We also know that after the fall of Jerusalem, Jewish Christian communities migrated into Arabia, where they had considerable influence on the Prophet Muhammad 600 years later. Unfortunately, we know very little about these early Christians so we cannot say how they combined the two faiths.

Now, however, the two different heritages have been separated by 19 centuries of history, much of it bloody and marked by acrimonious controversy. The lines of differentiation and conflict are clearly marked.

One can be an ethnic Jew, that is be of Jewish ancestry, and still be a Christian. However, to shift from being a religious Jew (no matter how thin the affiliation) to Christianity seems to involve repudiation of Judaism _ the Jewish religion.

Edith Stein, who became a Carmelite nun but was killed by the Nazis because of her Jewish birth, clearly did that then when she wrote that she offered her life as penance for the infidelity of the Jewish people.

One can understand why many Jews consider her an apostate and why they were upset by her canonization, especially since, they argue, the Nazis killed her because she was a Jew and not because she was a Catholic.

Pope John Paul II does not have to consult with anyone about a canonization. The Roman Catholic Church can decide that one of its members is a saint on its own authority and does not need the approval of anyone outside the church to proceed with a canonization.

Nor is the issue whether Edith Stein now enjoys the happiness of the world to come. On the other hand, the pope’s hope that the canonization would build a bridge between Jews and Catholics seems unlikely to be fulfilled.

On the contrary, many Jews think the action is one more reason to be suspicious about the Catholic Church’s abandonment of anti-Semitism. Anyone who knows the history of Christian anti-Semitism can hardly blame them for their suspicions. It has been only three-and-a-half decades since the Catholic Church officially repudiated anti-Semitism.

Nor could anyone familiar with the history of the early 1940s argue that the Catholic Church had completely clean hands in the Holocaust.

Perhaps at a future time, when there is more amity between the two heritages which share so much _ same God, some scripture, some religious stories _ such a canonization would indeed build a bridge. But it is innocent to think that time has come.

No one can question the current pope’s good intentions towards Jews. However, one can question whether this canonization might have been prudently delayed until a more appropriate time.

It has caused a setback to the healing process between Catholics and Jews. It has offended many Jews who otherwise are quite sympathetic to Catholicism and the pope. How much harm it might do to Jewish-Catholic relations remains to be seen, but it certainly has not helped them.

IR END GREELEY