Ecumenism and Interfaith Relations

Former Soviet political prisoners have pointed to “a common enemy,” one intent on undermining the cause of Ukrainian-Jewish understanding they worked to achieve, in a recent controversy over a World War II memorial in a Ukrainian Catholic cemetery near Philadelphia.

The Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia has temporarily enclosed a monument to Ukrainian war dead at one of its cemeteries as it seeks “open, scholarly and compassionate dialogue” with Jewish organizations that have expressed concern over this particular memorial and the complex history behind it.

Confusion about Jesus’ Jewish identity persists, despite almost six decades of Catholic Church teaching on how to present Jews and Judaism in catechesis and preaching.

On the 78th anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle and Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, N.M., and the Pilgrimage of Peace delegation from their archdioceses participated in an interfaith prayer ceremony and a peace memorial ceremony.

The mountaintop monastery at Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel, facing the sea, has been a place of pilgrimage and tours for peoples of all faiths.