“Deconstructing Christian anti-Judaism”, a conference on anti-Jewish prejudices with Father Christophe Le Sourt in Montpellier

Père Christophe Le Sourt, du service national des relations avec le judaïsme auprès de la Conférence des Évêques de France. – DR

Father Christophe Le Sourt, director of the national service for relations with Judaism (SNRJ) presents the conference he will host at Villa Maguelone, Wednesday May 15, around the collective work "Deconstructing Christian anti-Judaism".

Since the "Nostra Aetate", declaration of the Second Vatican Council on the Church’s relations with non-Christian religions, dialogue and collaboration with followers of other religions are encouraged.

A founding text, a paradigm shift

The "Nostra Aetate" ("Our Age", text, promulgated on October 28, 1965, by Pope Paul VI) constitutes for Father Christophe Le Sourt, director of the SNRJ (national service for relations with Judaism) "a key moment in the history of the church, a paradigm shift in Judaism".

The conference that he will host this Wednesday, May 15, is based on the collective work of the Conference of Bishops of France entitled "Deconstructing Christian Anti-Semitism" published in 2023. "It’is an extremely simple manual, for priests, preachers and the general public, and which we wish to have on the working table of as many people as possible, around the most important and notable extracts from the declaration. It deals with anti-Jewish prejudice, contempt and hostility towards Jews.

To the question, does anti-Semitism take root in the soil of Christianity ?, Christophe Le Sourt responds with the text "L’Teaching of contempt" by Jules Isaac, published in 1962, the first to affirm that Christian anti-Semitism does indeed exist: "He calls out to John XXIII who hears him and reminds him that "what teaching can do, it can also undo&quot ;.

A passion for Judaism

Through the teaching of the Church, "we produce this simple book, which takes up in 20 chapters all the clichés of the ;anti-Judaism", what can be the doctrine of substitution or the opposition between old and new testament.

"The meteoric rise in anti-Semitic acts in France is impressive. I have always been in contact with Jews, it is a passion, both for the sources of Christianity and for living Judaism. John Paul II placed great emphasis on the importance of discovering Judaism as the Jews themselves present it today."

Conference, Wednesday May 15 from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Villa Maguelone, 31ter avenue Saint-Lazare. With Sauramps. Editions du Cerf. 18 €.