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Dolan strengthened already good Catholic-Jewish relations here

By Leon Cohen
of The Chronicle staff

March 5th, 2009

In one of his last acts as head of the Archdiocese (Catholic Church) of Milwaukee before he was designated head of the Archdiocese of New York, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan demonstrated how important to him is a good relationship between his church and the Jewish community.

Toward the end of January, Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of dissenting British Bishop Richard Williamson, who subsequently was revealed to be a Holocaust-denier.

According to Paula Simon, executive director of the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations, Dolan “postponed vacation plans” in early February to call a meeting of area Jewish leaders to address the subject.

He and Bishop Richard J. Sklba, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese, met with Simon; MJCCR Assistant Director Kathy Heilbronner; Rabbi Marc Berkson, spiritual leader of Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun; and Rabbi Joseph Prass, associate rabbi of Congregation Shalom, said Simon.

“Dolan made it clear that Bishop Williamson and his ideas absolutely did not represent the perspective of this Archdiocese, Archbishop or the Vatican,” Simon told The Chronicle.

“He wanted to know what he and the Archdiocese could do to make sure the Williamson issue would not get in the way of the relationship” between the two communities, she said.

Tough times

This was just one example of how, in the seven years he has been in Milwaukee, Dolan demonstrated “his commitment to dialogue, to the relationship between the two communities,” said Simon.

In fact, said Heilbronner, who also is co-chair of the Catholic-Jewish Conference of Milwaukee, Dolan “understood the strength of Catholic-Jewish relations in Milwaukee almost immediately on his arrival” in 2002. “He clearly understood the importance of the issues and supported the work we did.”

Dolan himself, in a telephone interview with The Chronicle on Feb. 27, said it was “a tribute to my predecessors” — Archbishops William Cousins and Rembert Weakland — that the friendship between Milwaukee’s Jewish and Catholic communities “was firmly established when I got here.”

“I tried my best to continue to foster that,” he said. “The Jewish community is gracious to say it worked.”

Moreover, “the strength [of the relationship] has been validated because we also had some tough times,” Dolan said. He mentioned particularly the Bishop Williamson controversy and the tension over the Mel Gibson film “The Passion of the Christ” in 2004.

“Those caused spasms of sadness,” Dolan said. “But the dialogue is doable enough that we came together because the trust is there.”

Dolan said that “the best thing” his successor could do on this matter “is first stand in awe and appreciation of what has been done; then get to know the people, see the progress, make it a priority to keep that up and to strengthen it.”

But as seriously as Dolan has treated Catholic-Jewish relations, local Jews who have worked with him also appreciate “his collegiality, generosity of spirit and his sense of humor,” said Simon.

Rabbi Ronald M. Shapiro, senior rabbi at Congregation Shalom, had many interactions with Dolan during the latter’s tenure. He recalled such serious and moving moments as the time Shapiro at Dolan’s invitation recited the Kaddish — which is in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke — at the Milwaukee Archdiocese’s service on the day Pope John Paul II was buried.

But he also remembered an instance of Dolan’s humor. The two gave invocations at a breakfast in honor of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “four or five years ago,” and the food served included pork sausages and bacon.

Dolan took one look at the pork on Shapiro’s plate and said, “I’ll trade you the potatoes” for it. Then Dolan said to the effect that, “This is what I call ecumenical — an archbishop and a rabbi eating off each other’s plates.”

Pope Benedict announced Dolan’s appointment to New York on Feb. 24. Dolan said that in the time since, he has been, among other things, calling and speaking to Jewish leaders there. He said that his predecessor in that position, Archbishop Edward Cardinal Egan, “had an excellent relationship with the Jewish community.”

Dolan characterized the New York Archdiocese, which has some 2.5 million Catholics (compared to Milwaukee’s about 700,000), as “Dublin [Ireland] and Tel Aviv combined.”

He is looking forward to his work there, but said he is “still a rookie” at Catholic-Jewish relations and is “going to need somebody up there” to help him understand the nature of the largest Jewish community in the U.S.

Dolan will officially take his new post on April 15. A Journal Sentinel report on Feb. 24 said it might take six months to a year for the Vatican to appoint a successor to Dolan.