Bishop meets with Cardinal Koch in Rome

While in Rome in July, Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger of the Diocese of Albany had a private audience with Cardinal Kurt Koch on July 6. Cardinal Koch is the president of both the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Pontifical Council for Religious Relations with the Jews.

Bishop Scharfenberger and Cardinal Koch discussed the Church in the United States, the Catholic-Jewish dialogue and the Catholic-Modern Orthodox Jewish dialogue, as well as the importance of Christocentric, evangelizing catechesis for the Church in America. The Catholic-Modern Orthodox Jewish dialogue also ventured into an exchange of theological themes.

In the meeting with Cardinal Koch, Bishop Scharfenberger expressed his hopes that this dialogue would move into areas such as Scripture, liturgical history and family/household observance practices, and added that Orthodox Jews and Catholics share similar concerns over cultural trends toward materialism, absence of God, moral relativism and disruption of the family life. The common belief is the United States’ role as world leader in promoting democracy, along with the contribution of the Catho­lic-Jewish dialogue, would be able to address those concerns.

On July 1, 2019, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Scharfenberger, consultant to the Bishops Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, as consultant to the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.