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Hello to all:

While posting in other Catholic forum I found about a group called B'NEI TZION, the Sons of Zion I believe, and they say they are Catholics of Eastern Heritage of the Hebrew Tradition. Seems they are in communion with Rome. However they state that they have not left Judaism but have found in the Catholic Faith the fullness of their identity.

Has anybody heard of them???????

God Bless

Bernardo

First time I heard of the "B'nei Tzion." It seems it is another organization of Catholics with exclusively(?) Jewish roots.

But unlike the Association of Hebrew Catholics which has received papal recognition from the late Pope John Paul II, the "Sons of Zion" was started in Bogota, Colombia only in 2000.

AHC's self-description: "The Association of Hebrew Catholics (AHC) is a voluntary association of Catholics of both Jewish and non-Jewish origins. It was launched in 1979 by Elias Friedman, OCD, a Hebrew Catholic friar and Andrew Sholl, a holocaust survivor."

One of AHC's famous converts is Rosalind Moss of Catholic Answers.

The AHC has St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) as co-patroness along with Our Lady of the Miracle.

AHC's website is:

http://hebrewcatholic.org/

Amado

I wonder sometimes why there are not more Hebrew Catholics within our Eastern Churches. Liturgically our practices are more reflective of the temple and synagogue traditions. I know that there are quite a few Hebrew Catholics who are also Eastern on this forum. Any insight into this?

Gordo

Dear Gordo,

In fact, the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia has MANY Jewish converts with more pouring in!

I've heard about complaints against all the Jewish converts coming into the Church!

And a friend of mine, who is an OCA priest, is also finding more and more Jewish converts to Orthodoxy in his parish - immigrants from Russia.

Alex

It appears that the conversion of Israeli Jews, with some "Russian Orthodox Jews" thrown in, is also happening to the Catholic Church in Israel.

In the following ZENIT article, you will note that there are two new communities of Russian immigrants (probably Orthodox or Russian Byzantine Catholics?) which are administered by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The liturgy is in Russian, courtesy of Russian-speaking Polish priests on loan from Poland.

The late Auxiliary Bishop (on the Israeli side of Jerusalem) Jean-Baptiste Gourion was the first Israeli native appointed as Bishop for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Almost all, if not all, of the current bishops and clergy of the LPJ are native to the Middle East.

By ZENIT:

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Code: ZE05112422

Date: 2005-11-24

A Milestone for Liturgy in Hebrew

Catholic Community in Jerusalem Marks an Anniversary

JERUSALEM, NOV. 24, 2005 (Zenit.org).- It is now a half-century since the Hebrew-speaking Catholic community in Jerusalem was granted approval to use its language in the liturgy.

Over the past few days, the small Catholic community in Jerusalem that prays in Hebrew, has been celebrating the event, reported the Italian newspaper Avvenire.

The community celebrated its golden anniversary with Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Franciscan Custodian of the Holy Land, who for years has personally cared for this small community "to keep alive the memory of the bond between Christianity and its Jewish roots," observed Avvenire.

"The community was formed in 1948, when among the families that arrived in Israel there were also mixed marriages," explained Franciscan Father Apollinare Szwed, a 37-year-old Pole who has been serving the community. "What united them was the fact that, as residents in Israel, they spoke Hebrew."

So in 1955 an ad hoc program of pastoral care got under way and permission was requested from the Holy See to use the Hebrew language in the liturgy, "a concession that, in the times of the Latin Mass, seemed difficult," noted the newspaper.

However, Rome gave its approval: Hebrew, considered as a former language of the Church, was used in parts of the rite.

Russian arrival

There are now five Hebrew-speaking communities in Israel. The others are those of Sts. Peter and James in Jaffa, one in Haifa, and another in Beer Sheva.

There are also two new communities of Russians, from the immigrants who arrived in Israel in the 1990s. There are Christians among them, descendants of Jews or spouses of the latter.

To attend to the pastoral needs of this group, the Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem requested help from the primate of Poland, Cardinal Jozef Glemp. Some Polish priests who speak Russian are now assisting these communities.

In turn, the Russian communities are a bridge to the Hebrew-speaking community, as for the new immigrants it is easier to pray in Russian at present. But they know their children will speak Hebrew.

In 2003 the Pope appointed Benedictine Jean-Baptiste Gourion auxiliary bishop of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

Bishop Gourion was the first prelate in charge of the pastoral care of the Hebrew-speaking Catholic faithful residing in the patriarchate's territory. He died last June, and his successor is yet to be appointed.

==================================================

Amado

Dear Amado,

I once read about a Jewish convert to Russian Orthodoxy, St Alexander the New Martyr, who had a Jewish-surname and was also a doctor (of course! ).

As he assisted Orthodox Christians, he would place little icons by their hospital beds.

When someone asked him his religious identity, St Alexander (Jacobson?) replied, "I am an Orthodox . . . Jew."

Alexander Men, the martyred Jewish convert and Orthodox priest, included a number of Jewish practices in his private devotions, including the placement of a Menorah in his icon room.

Alex

Dear Snydersquare,

Well, have you?

Alex

What an intersting idea. I'm the product of a mixed marriage - a Roman Catholic mother (German, Irish, English, French mix) and a Jewish father (Poland & Russia)...my three sisters and I were raised Catholic. There are so many like us - Catholics with a Jewish father - some familiarity with Judaism - we used to celebrate the major Jewish holidays with my paternal grandparents. Nice to know that we're recognized. Is there a group in Florida where I live?

Thank you all for your answers. I discovered they have a house where they gather to study here in Mexico City. I'll ask my pastor and see if I can go and learn somethin (bit difficult you don't teach an old dog new tricks).

Snydersquare, I'll check out in the links provided at their web page to see if there's any Hebrew-Catholic organization in Florida.

God bless you all.

Dear Snydersquare:

It might be a bit too far from Clearwater, but the Association of Hebrew Catholics will have a conference in Jacksonville, Florida from January 27 thru the 29th at the Hyatt Hotel.

Check their speakers and promo:

http://hebrewcatholic.org/jan27-292006ligh.html

Amado

I can't speak of Jews in Eastern Churches, because I don't know any personally, nor have I read the accounts of any, but as someone who came to the Latin Church through study of Orthodox Judaism, I can speak of why the Latin tradition draws Jews, or at least those who are accustomed to Jewish thinking and faith (which is not to say it draws more or less Jews than the East, only that there are qualities about it that do draw the Jewish mind). This also isn't to say that these things aren't present in Eastern tradition, either, just to highlight the specifics that really stand out in the draw of the Latin tradition.

First is the "rationalistic" tendency of the Latin tradition, which is very strongly in tune with Orthodox Jewish tradition. In Orthodox Judaism, prayer is not merely worship, it is also an intellectual pursuit. Even Orthodox Jewish mysticism is based in logical formulations almost as precise as mathematics. To the Orthodox Jew, debate and discourse is a kind of prayer, and greatly encouraged from a young age.

Second is the strong Aristolean tendency within Thomistic theology, which is the dominant theology of the Latin tradition. One of the greatest Jewish sages and rabbis was Moshe ben Maimon, or Maimonides, or just "the Rambam", and he was a staunch Aristolean who greatly influenced the thinking of St. Thomas Aquinas. The basic premise is that God can be sought through reason as well as faith, and in fact it is our duty to explore God with both. This also ties into the notion that "God has written about Himself in all of material nature". This is one reason that Orthodox Jews are so often strong academics and scientists as well, because the study of the atom, and how it interacts with electricity, is an exploration of God just as much as contemplative prayer. In fact, tying in with the above point, it really is a form of contemplative prayer.

Thirdly, the Liturgies of East and West really aren't significantly different from a Jewish perspective, and both are equally tied with Jewish practices. It's incorrect, IMO, to say that one is "more Jewish" than the other. For one thing, post-Christian Judaism is as much a revision of Judaism as Christianity itself is, as the Temple is gone and a whole new style of worship was developed to accomodate that drastic change. From a Jewish perspective, the only thing that's especially "more Jewish" about non-Latin traditions is the use of an ikonostasis or curtain. Beyond that the essential elements taken from Judaism are present in equal parts in both traditions, IMO.

There are other things that are more theologically based, but they have less to do with Latin tradition and more to do with the Thomist/Maimonides connection, such as perceptions on the Fall of Man and the nature of "Original Sin". Since those things are variable even within the Latin tradition, I don't think they really apply to the analysis so well, even though Thomism is often relegated to "Western" status (ironic given the fact that Maimonides, a major inspiration for St. Thomas, was very much an Eastern Jew).

One factor that appealed to me about Catholicism, and which I'm not sure if it's specific to the Latin tradition or not, is the emphasis on the Hebrew understanding of Scripture in addition to the Greek, which goes back to St. Jerome and the original translation of the Latin Vulgate. Jerome put a very heavy emphasis on the Hebrew versions of the Old Testament, and used them as an essential component to translating Scripture. I say I don't know how much this applies specifically to the West simply because I don't know much about how Eastern Bibles are translated, and how much the Hebrew originals are referenced. It's quite possible that the same tradition exists in the East. Does anyone have more insight on that?

I know that subtle things like that seem to have had a large effect in the West on understandings of things like Original Sin and its effects, such as St. Paul's dissertations on the "spirit against the flesh", which is basically simply a summary of the Jewish concept of "yetzer hatov/yetzer hara", or the Godly inclination and the physical inclination, or in "Western" terms the battle between concupiscence and the rational soul. What's interesting is that this distinction is not present as clearly in the Early Latin writings, such as St. Augustine, but are developed very distinctly in later theological traditions. Again, I don't know enough about the various Eastern theological traditions to discuss the distinctions or relations, and it's quite possible, even likely, that a similar trend exists in the East.

Of course, this is leaving aside the numerous social factors that have impacted the Jewish-Christian relationship, and which are simply too numerous and detailed to even cover briefly.

I honestly don't know that more Jews enter the Latin tradition than Eastern traditions, and there's some indication that countless Eastern European Jews have become, and continue to become, Orthodox/Eastern Catholic. I can only speak to my personal reasons for becoming Catholic, and specifically for finding the Thomistic theological tradition, predominant in the Latin Church, appealing from a somewhat Jewish standpoint.

Someone from a similar background of study and thought could likely come up with a exhaustive list of why Eastern traditions appeal to them, and I again want to stress that I don't believe anything is "defective" about one tradition or the other, just because I find the thought-process of one more familiar and to my liking.

Peace and God bless!

In the nineteenth century the Russian Orthodox Church published the Divine Liturgy and some other liturgical and prayer materials in Hebrew. I've never seen them, but if anyone can track them down, it might be worth reprinting them. It might also be worth re-doing the translation, since Hebrew is now a modern language and has no doubt changed from whatever recension of Hebrew the Russian Orthodox Church was using at the time.

Incognitus

If you're not familiar with Fr. Alexander Winogradsky and his ministry in Israel, here's his website:

http://www.geocities.com/rev_alexander2000/

An article about him in the Spring 2005 OCMC Magazine [ocmc.org] (page 13 of the PDF version) noted that he celebrates 80% of the Liturgy in modern Hebrew, the rest being in Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, Arabic, and some Slavonic, depending on who is attending.

Dave

I have met a few Jews who have gone into both Latin and Byzantine rites here in Australia. I know the Russian Catholic Centre in Melbourne has baptised a few families that came to Australia from Russia.

A lady (originally from South Africa) who was an architect in Perth, Western Australia was the principal adviser to the late Archbiship Sir Lancelot Goody (yes he was a knight) on church design. Her brother was a Carmelite in Israel and worked with a group of Jews who had come together