The Jewish Catholic Theologians

I teach my classes at Seton Hall University in a seminar room known as the Oesterreicher Suite, in which a photograph of Monsignor John M. Oesterreicher looks down on the class as it is being held. The room itself is comprised of glass cases with speeches and documents that track and illustrate the Monsignor’s path from Catholic convert of Jewish origin, encouraging others to follow his path of conversion to a commitment to change the Church’s attitude toward the Jews.

In the 1930s, Monsignor Oesterreicher lived in Germany and belonged to the Freiberg Circle, which opposed anti-Semitism and sought a non-racist approach toward Judaism. After World War II, he founded an institute for the then-oxymoronic concept Judeo-Christian studies and was an editor for The Bridge, a 1950s journal which allowed Catholic authors to develop positive approaches toward Judaism. These efforts bore fruit as the 1961 publication, “Decree on the Jews” to which Oesterreicher was the major contributor. It took four years of ecumenical work to produce a fourth draft of the original document, which became known as Nostra Aetate.