Answer: No!
Whether we classify as Semitic only Jewish people, or all peoples who claim descent from Sem, the son of Noe, the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary are not anti-Semitic. If we were, we would be acting contrary to the Christian moral law.
Are we against the Jewish religion? That question must be further clarified before it can be answered. Are we opposed to the Jewish (Hebrew) religion as it was revealed by God to the patriarchs and prophets? No! It is the same religion as ours: What the faithful believed before Christ, in their doctrine and figures, was faith in a redemption to come, in the Messiah to come. Our faith is in the redemption that has come, in the Messiah that has fulfilled all prophecy. (For more on this, please read “Our Patriarch Abraham and the Continuity of Religion.”)
Are we opposed to Jewish beliefs and practices as they have evolved since the time of our Lord? Yes, absolutely so. Prior to the year 70, when the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, a Jewish Christian could have worshiped God in the Temple; he was still free to practice the Mosaic ritual law, provided that he did not hold it to be necessary for justification in Christ. During the forty years from our Lord’s Ascension to the destruction of the temple, the Old Law was mortua but not mortifera ("dead but not deadly," to quote St. Augustine). With the destruction of the temple, the Old Law was buried with dignity. After the year 70, Jewish converts to the Church were forbidden to practice the Mosaic ritual law. The Old Covenant was not destroyed, but it was fulfilled in Christ and superceded by the New Law. (See the article "A Better Testament.")
The Torah, or five books of Moses, are part of the Holy Scriptures of the Catholic Church. We share these Holy Books in common with the Jews. We also share the Psalms and the books of the prophets. But the Talmud, a two-part collection of rabbinic commentary which defines Orthodox Judaism, is a mixture of authentic Jewish oral tradition and shocking blasphemy. It is filled with attacks against our Lord and our Lady, and is racist in the extreme.
We pray for the conversion of the Jews. We do that because we love them as potential saints, heirs of the kingdom of heaven. (Eternity is a long time to ask for the companionship of people that one is alleged to despise!) Furthermore, our Savior Himself, our Lady, and the Apostles, are of the Jewish race. As the Savior told the woman at the well: “Salvation (Jesus) is of the Jews” (John 4:22). As members of the Mystical Body of Christ we are no longer gentile or Jew, but one body in Christ. In the New Dispensation one’s race or nation means nothing in terms of one’s salvation; it is one’s religion that matters.
For more information on this issue you can access these links:
- A Catholic Jew Defends the Center (Mr. Robert Cohen's Letter to the Editor of the Keene Sentinel)
- A Reply to Mr. Karl Keating (A defense of Father Feeney — somewhat lengthy)
- Father Denis Fahey on Anti-Semitism (Words of wisdom from the great apostle of the Christ the King)
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Hate-Mongers. (An off-site link exposing the tactics of those who brand traditional Catholics “anti-Semites”)
