Editing Supersessionism (section)

===Roman Catholic===
{{see also|Jerusalem in Christianity#Jerusalem as an allegory for the Church}}
Supersessionism is not the name of any official [[Roman Catholic|Roman Catholic Church]] teaching and the word appears in no Church documents, but official Catholic teaching has reflected varying levels of supersessionist thought throughout its history, especially prior to the mid-twentieth century. The theology that religious Jews dissent by continuing to exist outside the Church is extensive in Catholic liturgy and literature.{{sfn |Carroll |2001 |p=50}} The [[Second Vatican Council]] (1962–1965) marked a shift in emphasis of official Catholic teaching about [[Christianity and antisemitism|Judaism]], a shift which may be described as a move from "hard" to "soft" supersessionism, to use the terminology of David Novak.{{sfn |Michael |2011 |p=219}}

[[File:Pius PP XII.jpg|right|thumb|[[Pope Pius XII]] held supersessionist views.]]
Prior to Vatican II, Catholic teaching on the matter was characterized by "displacement" or "substitution" theologies, according to which the Church and its [[New Covenant]] took the place of Judaism and its "Old Covenant", the latter being rendered void by the coming of Jesus.{{sfn |Pawlikowski |1989 |pp=10–11}} The nullification of the Old Covenant was often explained in terms of the "[[Jewish deicide|deicide]] charge" that Jews forfeited their [[Covenant (biblical)|covenantal relationship with God]] by [[Crucifixion of Jesus|executing]] the divine Christ.{{sfn |Chazan |2000 |p=9}} As recently as 1943, [[Pope Pius XII]] stated in his encyclical {{lang|la|[[Mystici corporis Christi]]}}:

{{quote|By the death of our Redeemer, the New Testament took the place of the Old Law which had been abolished; then the Law of Christ together with its mysteries, enactments, institutions, and sacred rites was ratified for the whole world in the blood of Jesus Christ.{{nbsp}}[...] [O]n the gibbet of His death Jesus made void the Law with its decrees and fastened the handwriting of the Old Testament to the Cross, establishing the New Testament in His blood shed for the whole human race.}}

At the Second Vatican Council, which was convened two decades after the [[Holocaust]], a different framework emerged on how Catholics should think about the status of the Jewish covenant. The declaration {{lang|la|[[nostra aetate]]}}, which was promulgated in 1965, made several statements which signaled a shift away from "hard supersessionist" replacement thinking which posited that the Jews' covenant was no longer acknowledged by God. Retrieving Paul's language in chapter 11 of his [[Epistle to the Romans]], the declaration states, "God holds the Jews most dear for the sake of their Fathers; He does not repent of the gifts He makes or of the calls He issues.{{nbsp}}[...] 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."<ref name="Nostra aetate">{{Cite web |title=Nostra aetate |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_nostra-aetate_en.html |access-date=2023-05-20 |website=www.vatican.va |at=n. 4}}</ref> A draft of the declaration contained a passage which originally called for "the entry of that [Jewish] people into the fullness of the people of God established by Christ";<ref>"Second Declaration on the Jews and Non-Christians, 28–29 September 1964," qtd. in Philip A. Cunningham et al (eds.), ''The Catholic Church and the Jewish People'' (Fordham, 2007), p. 195.</ref> however, at the suggestion of Catholic priest (and convert from [[Judaism]]) [[John M. Oesterreicher]],{{sfn |Connelly |2012 |p=254}} it was replaced in the final promulgated version with the following language: "the Church awaits that day, known to God alone, on which all peoples will address the Lord in a single voice and 'serve him shoulder to shoulder' (Zeph 3:9)."<ref name="Nostra aetate"/>

[[File:Pope JP2 (cropped).jpg|right|thumb|[[Pope John Paul II]] repudiated supersessionism.]]
Further developments in Catholic thinking on the covenantal status of ethnic Jews were led by [[Pope John Paul II]]. Among his most noteworthy statements on the matter is that which occurred during his historic visit to the synagogue in [[Mainz]] (1980), where he called Jews the "people of God of the Old Covenant, which has never been abrogated by God (cf. Romans 11:29, "for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable" [NRSV])."<ref name="vatican.va">{{Cite web |date=2002 |title=The Jewish People and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible |url=https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/pcb_documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20020212_popolo-ebraico_en.html |access-date=2023-05-20 |website=www.vatican.va}}</ref> In 1997, John Paul II again affirmed the Jews' covenantal status: "This people continues in spite of everything to be the people of the covenant and, despite human infidelity, the Lord is faithful to his covenant."<ref name="vatican.va"/>

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became [[Pope Benedict XVI]], wrote in his 1999 work ''Many Religions – One Covenant'' that "the Sinai [Mosaic] Covenant is indeed superseded."<ref>{{cite book |last=Ratzinger |first=Joseph |title=Many Religions – One Covenant |page=70}}</ref>

The post-Vatican II shift toward acknowledging the ethnic Jews as a covenanted people has led to heated discussions in the Catholic Church over the issue of [[Mission (Christianity)|missionary activity]] directed toward Jews, with some Catholics theologians with Cardinal [[Avery Dulles]] reasoning that "if Christ is the redeemer of the world, every tongue should confess him",{{sfn |Dulles |2002 |p=10}} while others vehemently oppose "targeting Jews for conversion".{{sfn |Boys |Cunningham |Pawlikowski |2002 |p=14}} Weighing in on this matter, Cardinal [[Walter Kasper]], then president of the [[Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews]], reaffirmed the validity of the Jews' covenant and then continued:<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/card-kasper-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_20021106_kasper-boston-college_en.html Reflections by Card. Walter Kasper],  6 November 2002.</ref> 

{{quote|text=[B]ecause as Christians we know that God's covenant with Israel by God's faithfulness is not broken ({{abbr|Rom|Romans}} 11,29; cf. 3,4), mission understood as call to conversion from idolatry to the living and true God (1 {{abbr|Thes|Thessalonians}} 1,9) does not apply and cannot be applied to Jews.{{nbsp}}[...] This is not a merely abstract theological affirmation, but an affirmation that has concrete and tangible consequences; namely, that there is no organised Catholic missionary activity towards Jews as there is for all other non-Christian religions.|author=[[Walter Kasper]]|title="The Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews: A Crucial Endeavour of the Catholic Church" (2002)|source=}}

In his [[apostolic exhortation]] {{lang|la|[[Evangelii gaudium]]}} (2013),<ref>{{cite news|author=[[Pope Francis]]|year=2013|title=''Evangelii gaudium'' n. 247|url=https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html}}</ref> [[Pope Francis]] emphasized communal heritage and mutual respect for each other, writing:

{{quote|text= We hold the Jewish people in special regard because their covenant with God has never been revoked, for "the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable" ({{abbr|Rom|Romans}} 11:29). The Church, which shares with Jews an important part of the sacred Scriptures, looks upon the people of the covenant and their faith as one of the sacred roots of her own Christian identity (cf. {{abbr|Rom|Romans}} 11:16–18). As Christians, we cannot consider Judaism as a foreign religion; nor do we include the Jews among those called to turn from idols and to serve the true God (cf. 1 {{abbr|Thes|Thessalonians}} 1:9). With them, we believe in the one God who acts in history, and with them we accept his revealed word.|author=Pope Francis|title={{lang|la|Evangelii Gaudium}} (2013)|source=}}

Similarly, the words of Cardinal Kasper, "God's grace, which is the grace of Jesus Christ according to our faith, is available to all. Therefore, the Church believes that Judaism, [as] the faithful response of the Jewish people to God's irrevocable covenant, is salvific for them, because God is faithful to his promises,"<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dominus Iesus |url=https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/research_sites/cjl/texts/cjrelations/resources/articles/kasper_dominus_iesus.htm |access-date=2023-05-20 |website=www.bc.edu}}</ref> highlight the covenantal relationship of God with the Jewish people, but differ from Pope Francis in calling the Jewish faith "salvific". In 2011, Kasper specifically repudiated the notion of "displacement" theology, clarifying that the "New Covenant for Christians is not the replacement (substitution), but the fulfillment of the Old Covenant."{{sfn |Kasper |2011 |p=xiv}}

These statements by Catholic officials signal a remaining point of debate, wherein some adhere to a movement away from supersessionism, and others remain with a "soft" notion of supersessionism. [[Traditionalist Catholic]] groups, such as the [[Society of St. Pius X]], strongly oppose the theological developments concerning Judaism made at Vatican II and retain "hard" supersessionist views.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sspx.org/en/news-events/news/judaism-church-after-vatican-ii-1342|title=Judaism & the Church: before & after Vatican II|date=2013-01-24|website=District of the USA|language=en|access-date=2020-02-23}}</ref> Even among mainstream Catholic groups and official Catholic teaching, elements of "soft" supersessionism remain. The ''[[Catechism of the Catholic Church]]'' refers to a future corporate repentance on the part of Jews:

{{blockquote|The glorious Messiah's coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by 'all Israel,' for 'a hardening has come upon part of Israel' in their 'unbelief' toward Jesus [{{abbr|Rom|Romans}} 11:20-26; cf. {{abbr|Mt|Matthew}} 23:39].{{nbsp}}[...] The 'full inclusion' of the Jews in the Messiah's salvation, in the wake of 'the full number of the Gentiles' [{{abbr|Rom|Romans}} 11:12, 25; cf. {{abbr|Lk|Luke}} 21:24], will enable the People of God to achieve 'the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,' in which 'God may be all in all.'<ref>''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' {{cite web| url = https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1V.HTM| title = CCC 674}}</ref> The Church teaches that there is an integral continuity between the covenants rather than a rupture.<ref>Commission for religious relations with the Jews. [https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/relations-jews-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_19741201_nostra-aetate_en.html "Guidelines And Suggestions For Implementing The Conciliar Declaration "Nostra aetate" (n. 4)"] www.vatican.va (Rome, 1 December 1974).</ref>}}

In the Second Vatican Council's {{lang|la|[[Lumen gentium]]}}<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html| title = ''Lumen gentium''}}</ref> (1964), the Church stated that God "chose the race of Israel as a people" and "set up a covenant" with them, instructing them and making them holy. However, "all these things.{{nbsp}}[...] were done by way of preparation and as a figure of that new and perfect covenant" instituted by and ratified in Christ (No. 9). Vatican II also affirmed, "the Church is the new people of God" without being "Israel according to the flesh", the Jewish people.

In ''Notes on the Correct Way to Present the Jews and Judaism'' (1985), the Church stated that the "Church and Judaism cannot then be seen as two parallel ways of salvation and the Church must witness to Christ as the Redeemer of all."