Catholic Preaching on Jews and Judaism: The Challenge from Surveyed Good Friday Homilies

Abstract

Abstract: To assess the reception in the American Catholic Church of the significant shift in Catholic doctrine on Jews and Judaism since the promulgation of Nostra Aetate at Vatican II, a study was conducted of a dataset of thirty-two Catholic Good Friday homilies from a sermons database that the Pew Research Center collected from the Internet in 2019. Relying on conciliar and post-conciliar Catholic teaching documents and using deductive qualitative content analysis, the survey analyzed the texts based on their treatment of six issues: (1) the Jewish identity of Jesus and his disciples, (2) respect for the Jewish people and their religious heritage, (3) the role Jews had in Jesus’ passion and death, (4) the reading from the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament, (5) the Pharisees, and (6) the gospel reading. The survey found that none of the homilies directly addressed the ahistorical, negative treatment of “the Jews” in John’s Gospel. None of the homilies commented on the Jewish identity of Jesus and his disciples. Only two homilies mentioned the Pharisees, one in a positive way and another in a negative way. As to respect for the Jewish people and their religious heritage, most homilists were silent on this matter, although some still trafficked in Jewish stereotypes, claiming, for example, that Jewish pride was evident at the crucifixion. As to Jewish responsibility for Jesus’ death, most homilists said that the sins of humanity brought Jesus to the cross, but some homilists still claimed that Jews were responsible for the crucifixion in direct contradiction to modern Church teaching. Of the homilists who referred to the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament, most read them in a typological way, not showing any concern for the texts in their historical context. As to the treatment of the Gospel of John, most homilists who commented on it showed little awareness of contemporary biblical scholarship, reading the text in a literalist way.