Vatican Rejects Criticism of Israel's Top Rabbis against Pope Francis II Statements

The Vatican, the center of the Holy See for more than 1.3 Catholics in the world,  rejected criticism from senior rabbis in Israel against the backdrop of Pope Francis II statements about the Torah.

The center explained that the Pope did not question the continued validity of the Torah for the Jews at the present time.

"Reuters", a news agency, stated that  the official response of the Vatican included that the Pope's comments should not be taken out of context, which was dealing with antiquity and does not include any reference to Jews at the present time."

In turn, Cardinal Kurt Koch, who works in the Vatican, explained that religious relations with the Jews are covered by the firm Christian conviction that Jesus Christ is the new way to salvation, but this does not mean that the Torah is devalued or that it is no longer considered a 'way of salvation for the Jews.

Koch added that the fact that the Torah is important to modern Judaism is in no way in question.

Reuters reported, earlier, that the person responsible for the dialogue with the Vatican in the Israeli Chief Rabbinate Committee, Rabbi Ratzon Arousi, wrote a stern letter to the Vatican in which he affirmed that “Pope Francis’ statements to a general audience on August 11 seem to indicate that the Torah is outdated.

Pope Francis has sought to assuage concerns over comments he made about Jewish law that some Jewish leaders viewed as disparaging, according to a new report.

Reuters said Monday that the pope had conveyed to Israel’s chief rabbinate that he had not intended to be seen as passing judgment on the law of the Torah.

[caption id="attachment_269497" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Rabbi Ratzon Arusi attends a swearing in ceremony for the Rabbinate Council at the President's residence in Jerusalem, on October 24, 2018. Photo by Yonatan[/caption]

Last month Francis caused consternation when he told an audience that the law of the Jewish Torah “does not give life, it does not offer the fulfillment of the promise because it is not capable of being able to fulfill it.

The  Jewish Law is a journey, a journey that leads toward an encounter, thus those who seek life need to look to the promise and to its fulfillment in Christ.”

Rabbi Ratzon Arusi, the chairman of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s Commission for Dialogue with the Holy See, sent a letter to the Vatican requesting clarification of the comments.

“In his homily last August, the pope presented the Christian faith as not just superseding the Torah; but asserts that the latter no longer gives life, implying that Jewish religious practice in the present era is rendered obsolete,” Arusi reportedly wrote in the letter, according to the Times of Israel.

“This is in effect part and parcel of the ‘teaching of contempt’ towards Jews and Judaism that we had thought had been fully repudiated by the Church.”