PROVIDENCE – Count Dr. Arthur P. Urbano Jr., assistant professor of theology at Providence College, as one of the many who are looking to foster a stronger connection between Catholics and those of the Jewish faith.
Earlier this fall, Urbano was one of 70 people from 20 U.S. cities who participated in the First Lay Conference on Catholic-Jewish Relations at the North American College at the Vatican as a representative of the Diocese of Providence.
The five-day international conference was organized by the New York-based Interreligious Information Center, in conjunction with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Pontifical Council for Religious Relations with the Jews.
One of the conference’s goals was to discuss the state of Jewish-Catholic relations as a way of nurturing understanding and cooperation among Catholic and Jewish communities at the local level.
“Christianity has ties with Judaism that it doesn’t share with any other religion,” said Urbano, who is a member of Holy Apostles Parish in Cranston. “This was a way to get to know each other a little better.”
Among many other topics, the participants discussed the relationship between the two faiths and Islam and devised a plan for community cooperation with high-ranking Church officials, who included Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity; Cardinal William H. Keeler, Episcopal Moderator for Catholic-Jewish Relations for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; the Very Rev. J. Augustine DiNoia, O.P., undersecretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; and Rev. Norbert Hoffman, secretary to the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.
In addition, Jerzey Kluger, a Jewish childhood friend of Pope John Paul II, spoke during the conference about his memories of the pope and his own experience escaping the Holocaust in Poland.
Conference participants also visited a Rome synagogue, and on the last day attended, as guests of honor, the papal audience held in St. Peter’s Square. Urbano said four members of the group, not including him, presented Pope Benedict XVI a smaller model of a large menorah that stands in the courtyard of the North American College in Rome. Its six candlesticks each represent one million Jews killed in the Holocaust.
Although he’s been to Rome a number of times, this is the first time Urbano went in an official capacity. It was Urbano’s colleague at Providence College, Dr. Sandra T. Keating, assistant professor of theology, who first told him that Rabbi Peter Stein of Temple Sinai in Cranston was eyeing the possibility of furthering Jewish/Catholic dialogue locally.
Urbano said Rabbi Stein and he immediately began “brainstorming” to see what they could do to close the gap between the two faiths on the local level. “It’s not enough to recognize our differences. We have to recognize that we hold a lot in common. There’s plenty of common ground,” he said. “However, good dialogue is bold in its recognition of our difference, as well.”
The search for “common ground” officially took off when the Vatican Council released the Nostra Aetate document encouraging Christian-Jewish mutual respect in 1965, Urbano said.
“The relationship between Jews and Catholics had some dark moments but Nostra Aetate encouraged Catholics to learn more about Judaism,” Urbano said, noting that the landmark document was focused on combating anti-Semitism and promoting understanding.
Urbano said the conference gave him and the others the opportunity to follow through on what Nostra Aetate called for.
“It was very instructional,” he said. “I know a lot about ancient Judaism but as far as what happened in the past thousand years, I don’t consider myself an expert. This was a chance to listen and learn and see what people who work for local parishes and synagogues are doing.”
Urbano’s pilgrimage to Rome with Rabbi Stein actually became the focus of national attention when they were the subject of a story that ran in Catholic News Service, the oldest and largest religious news wire service in the U.S.
With or without the media attention, Urbano said the conference lived up to its goal of furthering dialogue between the religions. “To have the chance to hear what was going on across the country in local parishes and synagogues was really inspiring,” he said. “I came back with a fresh perspective.”
