Another area that must be investigated in light of the document is the question of Christian evanglelization activity toward Jewish people. On August 12, 2002, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops published a statement from the "Bishops Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligioius Affairs in dialogue with the National Council of Synagogues, entitled Reflections on Covenant and Mission which stated that "targeting Jews for conversion to Christianity" is "no long theologically acceptable in the Catholic Church." Two months later in an article in America , who has emerged as the leading United States spokesman of Vatican teaching, criticized Reflections on Covenant and Mission as lacking doctrinal authority but moreso as unfaithful to Church teaching. He then cited with agreement Heb. 8:13 that the first covenant is "obsolete" and "ready to vanish away;" a view countered by Pope John Paul’s frequent reference to Romans 11:29, where Paul says of the Jewish people that "the gifts and the call are irrevocable." Somewhat surprisingly Dulles never mentions the statement by Pope John Paul II at Mainz and repeated or subsequent occasions that the covenant has never been revoked, nor "The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible," though the response in the same issue of America by Mary Boys, Philip Cunningham and John Pawlikowski does cite this document.^[10]

4. Fourthly. While the method of reading biblical texts in the document is firmly rooted in historical criticism by locating documents in their original setting and studying their transmission, the document lacks any real engagement with critical hermeneutics, especially those evolved by feminist hermeneutics and liberation theology. It is not enough simply to say that anti-Jewish statements are historically conditioned. As part of a canon of Scripture one must ask as Elisabeth Schuessler Fiorenza has done whether such statements are "for the sake of our salvation," (one of the criteria of inspiration listed in Dei Verbum, No. 11, Vatican II).^[11] Even when seen in their historical setting such statements raise questions about the understanding of God handed on in the Scriptures, and also about fundamental negative attitudes toward "the other," or the outsider which have plagued Christian history.

5. Fifthly, as valuable as the document is and as immensely valuable as have been the publications of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, one raise questions about their method of proceeding. Normally their statements are almost exclusively directed to Roman Catholics and deal with inner-church issues. In this statement they are talking about the faith and beliefs of another people, as the title explicitly says, The Jewish People and Their Scriptures. The problem is that the document talked about a distinct group (Jewish People) without any evidence that they talked with representatives of this same people. (I admit that I could be mistaken here but, given the secrecy characteristic of Congregations and Commissions we have no way of knowing whether this took place.)

6. Finally, it is very important that the insights and conclusions of "The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible," be incorporated into the theology and pastoral ministry of the Church. I have honestly found very few Catholic teachers who have read the document or seminarians who know of its existence. Its conclusions should also influence liturgy and worship, since, for example, the first reading from the Old Testament in the Sunday liturgy is often related to the Gospel in a rather wooden scheme of promise/fulfillment. Also something must be done about the pejorative use of the term "Jews" in the Gospel of John and characterizations of them especially in liturgical readings no matter how much sophisticated historical criticism locates this usage in a first century context and cautions against its characterization of Jewish people today. When the average person in the pew hears that "you [the Jews] do not have the love of God in you" (Jn 5:42) [Thursday, Fourth Week of Lent], or "Jesus said to the Pharisees, "you will die in your sins if you do not believe that I am He [the divine name], Jn. 8:21, [Tuesday, Fifth Week of Lent]. I am not in favor of excising these sections from the Bible since they remind me as a Christian that we must come to terms with the negative attitudes of our Scripture and Traditions. Still liturgical readings can and should be revised, and catechesis must break down old prejudices.

A final word: Many who have read this document have commented on the eschatological messianic hope shared by Jews and Christians. This seems to some new and somewhat radical but I want to conclude with the words of a wonderful visionary rabbi, Hershel Jonah Matt who penned the following words over three decades ago.

Jews and Christians—our situations are somewhat different; our roles and tasks are somewhat different; our styles and modes are somewhat different. But we are covenanted to and by the same God of Israel; our essential teachings are markedly similar; our goals, identical. And the one whose second coming Christians await and whose (first) coming we Jews await—when he comes—will surely turn out to have the same face for all of us."^[12]