ABSTRACT
Since 1945 there has been a radical shift in the relationship to Judaism of educated Catholic people as well as of the Roman Catholic Church in its official public teachings and policies. This is true both on the level of national bishops’ conferences, and on the level of an ecumenical council, that is, the highest authority in the church. This policy shift is furthered by the regular work of the Vatican Secretariat for Christian Unity, with its department for Jewish-Christian relations, not to mention the work of individual theologians like Gregory Baum, Franz Mussner, Rosemary Reuther, John T.Pawlikowski, Charlotte Klein, Edward H.Flannery, Edward A.Synan, Friedrich Heer, Clemens Thoma, Eugene J.Fisher, Kurt Schubert, Gunther Stemberger, and the forerunner John Oesterreicher. On the institutional level this shift can be strikingly illustrated by the case of the Fathers and Sisters of Sion, a religious congregation founded in the last century to pray and to work for the conversion of the Jews. Since the Second Vatican Council at least, they have reoriented themselves to improve Jewish-Christian understanding.
