In August and September of 2021, Pope Francis delivered a series of catecheses on the Letter of Paul to the Galatians during the customary Wednesday audiences in the Vatican. See in particular the audiences of
August 11 and
August 18. A Reuters news story on August 25, 2021 revealed that a leading Israeli Rabbi, Rasson Arousi, had written to the Vatican on August 12th asking for clarifications. (On September 11, 2021,
Dialogika received the rabbi's permission to post the full text of his letter below.) These events sparked debate about the Catholic Church's current understanding of the centrality of the Torah for Jews today. The dispute about Catholic teaching was further roiled when the editor of the Jesuit journal
La Civiltà Cattolica published reflections on the Gospel reading for Sunday, August 29th. On September 9, 2021 the Vatican website posted a reply to the rabbi's letter of concern that had been sent on September 3rd. Relatedly, in early September Pope Francis himself delivered public greetings for the Jewish High Holydays and condemned antisemitism during visits to Hungary and Slovakia (see
HERE). In his general audience of
September 29, he further noted that for Paul the Law "remains an irrevocable gift from God." Collected below are selected relevant texts about Catholic Preaching on "the Law."