Pope in My Back Yard: The Rabbi and the Sculpture

"Synagoga and Ecclesia in Our Time," dedicated today

Pope Francis' good friend and co-author Rabbi Abraham Skorka  arrived in Philadelphia a day ahead of the pontiff. (And like the Pope, he is also staying just a block from my house, though not at St. Charles Seminary. We have quite a high-end bed-and-breakfast community going here)
This afternoon Rabbi Skorka  was the keynote speaker at a dedication of an important sculpture -- one that shows Christianity and Judaism on an equal footing.
A dialogue between Rabbi Skorka and his friend, when he was Cardinal Bergoglio, deepened their relationship and their conviction that both grew spiritually from a closer understanding of each other and each other's theology.

Rabbi Skorka

That belief -- and also the effort to fight longstanding anti-Semitism, often within the Church -- led St. Joseph's University to establish, in 1967, The Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations, which is responsible for the new sculpture, along with a number of Jewish organizations including the American Jewish Committee. (*See list of other participating organizations below)
So, about that sculpture: All over Europe a sculptural representation of Judaism and Christianity in the form of two women,  shows the Christian "Ecclesia" -- tall and proud and wearing a crown -- and "Synagoga," who is blindfolded by a serpent, her staff broken, her tablets slipping from her hand. It represents the triumph of Christianity over Judaism.
The new sculpture, called   "Synagoga and Ecclesia in Our Time," by Joshua Koffman, shows the two women seated beside each other, almost like two sisters, reading over each other's shoulders.
Below is the Medieval version:

Medieval version, Strasbourg Cathedral

Beside collaborating on their book, On Heaven and Earth, Rabbi Skorka and Pope Francis appeared together on TV 31 times, showing how debate and dialogue with each other deepened their respective faiths. It's time, said Rabbi Skorka, for a "new world in which we are no longer foreigners with each other." The new rendition of the sculpture, he said, is a "reminder of our past and the challenge of the future."

Here is the text, from Nostra Aetate, which opened the door to an improvement in Catholic-Jewish relations:

"True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ; still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures. All should see to it, then, that in catechetical work or in the preaching of the word of God they do not teach anything that does not conform to the truth of the Gospel and the spirit of Christ."

*Other groups collaborating with the Institute are the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, Anti-Defamation League, Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia and World Meeting of Families.