Jewish leaders continue to be concerned about the Catholic bishops’ changing their policy on evangelizing, according to a USCCB report on the latest round of Jewish-Catholic dialogue.

As our Kevin Eckstrom noted, the U.S. Catholics Bishops, without forewarning or fanfare, revised their statement on the Jews at their meeting last month in San Antonio. Previously, the bishops had said Catholics should not proselytize to Jews; their new “Note on Covenant and Mission,” says “the Christian dialogue partner is always giving witness to the following of Christ, to which all are implicitly invited.”

At a June 25 meeting between Jewish leaders and reps from the bishops’ conference, David Berger, head of the Jewish Studies Department at Yeshiva College, said some fellow Jews have “grave” concerns about the Note, according to the USCCB.

From the USCCB’s report: Orthodox Jews can tolerate any Christian view on the necessity of faith in Jesus Christ as savior of all, but they cannot agree to participate in an interfaith dialogue that is a cover for proselytism, Berger said. [snip]

Berger and the other Jewish participants asked if the `implicit witnessing to Christ’ means, in effect, a subtle attempt to convert Jews to Christianity, which would render interreligious dialogue with Catholics illegitimate and “dangerous” from an Orthodox Jewish standpoint. `We take apostasy very seriously,’ he said, referring to the abandonment of Judaism for another religion.

Father James Massa, of the Secretariat of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs at the USCCB, assured participants that interreligious dialogue for the Catholic bishops is never about proselytism or any coercive methods that would lead a person to abandon his or her religious convictions.”