Ariel Ben Ami, executive director of Catholics for Israel, is occasionally available for a limited number of speaking engagements.  Invite Ariel to your parish, conference, retreat, or study group.

Cardinal Avery Dulles (1918-2008), of blessed memory, discusses the present status of God's covenant with Israel, a subject which has been extensively discussed in Jewish-Christian dialogues since the Shoah. Catholics look for an approach that fits in the framework of Catholic doctrine, much of which has been summarized by the Second Vatican Council... 

The purpose of my speech is to point out what the change in the relationship between Jews and Christians is about, and especially to show that in this change and in some prophetic events taking place in the world today between Christians and Jews, the heavenly Father is carrying out His plan in history looking more and more towards the day when Christ will return in glory to fulfill the Father's plan upon the world.

Fifty years ago, the declaration "Nostra aetate" of the Second Vatican Council was promulgated, presenting the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people in a new theological framework. The following reflections aim at looking back with gratitude on all that has been achieved over the last decades in the Jewish–Catholic relationship, providing at the same time a new stimulus for the future.

"The Jewish reading of the Bible is a possible one, in continuity with the Jewish Sacred Scriptures from the Second Temple period... Christians can...  learn much from Jewish exegesis practised for more than two thousand years, and, in fact, they have learned much in the course of history."

The New Temple will be erected when Judaism and Catholicism will be united to proclaim the only Word of God and the only one Messiah, to sing the only Glory of God that shines in all works performed in both Judaism and Catholicism, in the great works of mercy and in the great works of judgment for the sins of men. So the Nations will know that the true living God is among His people, living in His Temple, which is the Church of Jesus Christ.

Ulpan programs - the modern Hebrew language schools - are known to be a hub of diversity, predominantly filled with new immigrants, Arab Israelis looking to learn Hebrew and Jewish students spending a semester abroad. But ulpan teachers say that in recent years, they have seen a remarkable influx of priests and priests-in-training being sent to ulpan programs officially by their seminaries.

"The Chosen People, the Jews, teach us through the divine revelation of the living God that humility of heart is what is required to truly and more deeply encounter the living God. They knew the way of Christ before He was born."

Many today are unaware of the tumultuous history of the Declaration Nostra Aetate and how it was initially intended to exclusively address the relationship of the Church with the Jewish people. This paper examines the origins and development of the Declaration on the Jews and how it eventually became the Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions.

The self-styled “Kairos Palestine” document was launched in Bethlehem on December 11,2009 by a panel chaired by the former Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem,Michel Sabbah. The document is meant to mobilize churches worldwide in a program of boycotts, divestment and delegitimization directed at the State of Israel.

The history of relations between Christians and Jews represents a very complex history which alternates between proximity and distance, between fraternity and estrangement, between love and hate. On the one hand, Jesus cannot be understood without Judaism; on the other hand, the schism between synagogue and church forms the first split in the history of the church,

This coming Saturday night begins the fast of Tisha b'av on which we mourn the destruction of both the first and second Temples. According to the midrash, the messiah was born on Tisha b’av, when the first Temple, the Temple of Solomon, was destroyed. Something happened when the Temple was destroyed that kicked off the final redemption.

To Do the Will of Our Father in Heaven: Toward a Partnership between Jews and Christians. A statement by a group of Orthodox rabbis calls Christianity part of a divine plan in which God would have Jews and Christians work together to redeem the world.

A statement clarifying two points of Catholic teaching relative to the Jewish community was released June 18, 2009, at the spring meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). A Note on Ambiguities Contained in Covenant and Mission was jointly issued by the Committee on Doctrine and Pastoral Practice and the Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.

Following the reactions aroused by the recent Decree of the Congregation for Bishops, with which the excommunication of the four Bishops of the Fraternity of Saint Pius X was remitted, and in relation to the negationist and reductionist declarations concerning the Shoah on the part of Bishop Williamson of the same Fraternity, it is held opportune to clarify certain aspects of the matter.

The term 'a stiff-necked people,' used to describe the Jews' betrayal of God on Mt. Sinai, has been erroneously applied throughout history; but in one case, at least, it is sadly apt.

"At the end of this Millennium the Catholic Church desires to express her deep sorrow for the failures of her sons and daughters in every age. This is an act of repentance (teshuva), since, as members of the Church, we are linked to the sins as well as the merits of all her children."

Catholics for Israel is an apostolate faithful to the Magisterium, the living teaching office of the Church to whom Jesus has entrusted the task of authentically interpreting the word of God (DV 10).  This means that official magisterial teachings of the Catholic Church, most especially chapter 4 of the declaration Nostra Aetate and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, form the core of our beliefs concerning Israel and the Jewish people. 

Dual-covenant theology is a theological error teaching that since God's covenant with the Jews is still valid for them, they don't need Jesus or the New Covenant to be saved. Jews could go to Heaven simply by keeping the Law of Moses, because of the "everlasting covenant" between Abraham and God (Gen 17:13), whereas Gentiles (non-Jews) must convert to Christianity to be saved.

Replacement theology (or supersessionism) is the idea that the Christian Church has "replaced" Israel (or the Jewish people) in God's plan of salvation as His chosen people.  In its simplest expression, replacement theology could be expressed as follows: "The Jews have rejected Christ; therefore God has rejected the Jews and the Church is now the 'New Israel.'"