Catholic Church and Judaism
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The Catholic Church and Judaism have a long and complex history of cooperation and conflict, and have had a strained relationship throughout history that has improved since the twentieth century. Both claim a common heritage of tradition, going back to Abraham and insist that they are the true extension of faith described in the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible, which they evoke to establish their authority and justify their status as God's covenantal partner.
Both religions have roots in the period of Second Temple Judaism and only gradually over the next centuries separated from each other while engaging in mutual polemics. Though initially persecuted, Christianity was legitimised in 313 and was declared the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380, which led to increasing restrictions on the Jews by the imperial government. Based on the teachings of Paul and Augustine of Hippo as well as Roman law, the Catholic Church opted to allow Jews to live in the now Christian Empire in their role as witnesses to the Old Testament. This role offered them some privileges and protections, such as from forced conversion, but also limited their role and rights in society as stated in Roman law. Rabbinic Judaism generally viewed Christians as heretics and idolaters. The popes, starting with Gregory the Great, often served as the persons who Jews would petition for intervention and Gregory's letter Sicut Judaeis became the basis for later papal bulls of protection.
Whereas Jews lived fairly unharmed in the early Middle Ages, the situation changed gradually with the start of the crusades at the end of the eleventh century. Popes usually spoke out against anti-Jewish violence but with the increase in temporal powers of the papacy, it also started to regulate Jewish presence in society. Nevertheless, ecclesiastic (and secular) protection of the Jews was not always possible and some churchmen incited violence against Jews. By the thirteenth century, Augustine's witness theology had eroded significantly so that Jews were often not deemed worthy of the protection anymore and were expelled by the rulers of some Christian kingdoms. With the start of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the focus of the Church shifted to converting the Jews.
After the Holocaust in the 20th century, the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s led to improvements in the relationship between the Catholic Church and Judaism, following the Church's repudiation of the Jewish deicide accusation and its addressing the topic of antisemitism. In 1965, the Church issued the document "Nostra aetate" which condemned antisemitism and recognized the shared heritage of Jews and Christians. Since the 1970s, interfaith committees have met regularly to address relations between the religions, and Catholic and Jewish institutions have continued to work together on issues such as social justice, interfaith dialogue, and Holocaust education. The Catholic Church has also taken steps to address the harm caused by past persecution of Jews, such as the establishment of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and the apology of the Pope John Paul II to the Jewish community.