Jerusalem: Catholic-Israeli academic exchange in wake of Fundamental Agreement
A conference on "Jewish Law - Catholic Church Law - Israeli Law" opened this morning in Jerusalem with welcome speeches. A judge from Israel's Supreme Court, Salim Joubran, spoke about the great complexity and richness found in the relationship between the law of the Israeli state and religious ordinances, while the Custodian of the Holy Land cited the pope: "Reason, a place of comparison between the Church and human civilization".
Tel Aviv (AsiaNews) A conference on "Jewish Law - Catholic Church Law - Israeli Law" opened this morning in Jerusalem with welcome speeches from the speakers.
The meeting is the fruit of a joint initiative of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Rome), the Pazmany Peter Catholic University of Budapest, the Free University of Maria Assunta (Rome), and the Law Faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with the Pontifical University "Antonianum" (Rome) contributing one of the three members of the organising committee, who is also one of the speakers.
In preparation for long years (five or six altogether) the Conference is the concrete fruit of the vision of Prof. Mgr Joaquin Llobell, of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, assisted throughout by Fr David-Maria A. Jaeger OFM, of the Canon Law Faculty of the Roman "Antonianum." The original plan had been to hold it in cooperation with the Israeli private university "The Inter-Disciplinary Centre" of Hertzliyah, which, however, later preferred to withdraw and to ask the prestigious Hebrew University's Law Faculty to take its place.
The Papal envoy, Mgr Antonio Franco, imparted his blessing during the inaugural session. He was followed by a judge from Israel's Supreme Court, Salim Joubran (the first Christian ever to be appointed by the Court that has the administrative and judicial competence of the State Council and the Italian Supreme Court).
In his inaugural speech, brief but packed with information, the judge referred to the considerable complexity and richness found in links between the law of the Israeli state and religious ordinances, both Jewish and church law, emphasizing that ultimately, the task of determining a suitable relationship in its entirety would belong to the legislator, and that judges have only the delicate and painstaking task of interpreting the status of the question according to the will of the legislator at a given time.
A second inaugural address was delivered by the Custodian of the Holy Land, Fr Pierbattista Pizzaballa. He extended a welcome specifically to Christian pilgrims among the participants, explaining that this was a particular task of the Franciscan custodian. He then focused on specific links that church law can have with state law on the one hand, and with religious, that is Jewish, law on the other.
He said: "Church law shares with Jewish religious law a determining reference to divine revelation contained in the Old Testament, the Bible of the Jews. With state law, Canon law shares above all a definite reference to reason, arbiter of justice of the law."
In his erudite speech, the Custodian priest cited St Thomas of Aquinas who defined law as ordinatio rationis, "a rational rule" as well as a recent address by Benedict XVI, in which the pope reiterated that reason is " a place of comparison between the Church and human civilization".
Prof. Don Luis Navarro (from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross) also greeted conference participants on behalf of Prof. Mgr Joaquin Llobell, whose idea it was to hold such a conference, and who is currently ill in Spain. All participants sent him best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Once the inaugural addresses were over, the conference works got under way. They will continue tomorrow too.
Today, the conference is taking place at the Pontifical Institute of Notre Dame in Jerusalem, and tomorrow, it will be held at the headquarters of the Hebrew University.
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16/10/2006
