Last week, there were at least four anti-Semitic incidents in Nassau County. This mirrors similar ones in the recent past that took place in Suffolk. The most grievous of these most recent incidents was the swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti at the Reconstructionist Jewish Synagogue in Plandome. At the end of Sunday Mass, I spoke of these briefly, offering the prayers and fraternal solidarity of all Catholics to our Jewish brothers and sisters at these morally reprehensible and totally unacceptable actions.

Whether these turn out to be the misguided pranks of youngsters or the more systematic acts of persons biased against Jews, all of us must take them seriously and all of us have a responsibility not only openly to condemn such actions. We all are called to examine our attitudes and our sometimes hidden, sometimes all too open, prejudices against Jews and others in our society.

In the years that I have been involved in the grace of Catholic-Jewish dialogue and conversation, I have learned much from our elder brothers and sisters. My own faith as a Catholic has been strengthened and enriched. I hope I have been a good friend and honest partner in our ongoing dialogue. One of the important lessons — a sad one indeed — that I have had to grasp is that anti-Semitism is the most deeply ingrained prejudice in the western world. It rears its ugly head even in societies where there are virtually no Jews in the community!

While much of millennial anti-Semitism of the past cloaked itself in religious references and indeed was nourished by some misinterpretations of the New Testament, modern anti-Semitism in the West often has secular roots and hides behind political opinion. This is especially true in Europe. The most vociferous bearers of anti-Semitic jargon there are found in the universities and among the secular intellectual elite who like to make Israel the excuse for an anti-Semitism that lies much deeper than the Dreyfous Affair but which today can find no support and no home among Christians.

One reason for this last fact can be traced to the Second Vatican Council. In the Declaration of the Church in relation to non-Christian relations, Nostra Aetate n. 4, the Fathers of the Council give us the proper approach of Catholics to Jews and to Judaism. Because “God does not take back the gifts he bestowed or the choice he made, the Jewish people are now and always God’s chosen people, and it is from the richness of Jewish revelation and religious culture that, in God’s divine plan, Jesus, the Son of God, brings the good news of salvation. We share a common spiritual heritage whose inner bonds make us then as now all sons and daughters of the one God whose love never fails.”

The Council Fathers rejected without any reservation that Jews could be blamed for the death of Jesus, putting an end to the many slurs, including Deicide, that Christians of the past used to use against their Jewish neighbors in Europe. They then added, “remembering, then, her common heritage with the Jews … she (The Church) deplores all hatreds, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism leveled at any time or from any source against the Jews.”

In the subsequent 40 years, pontiffs and bishops, Catholics from parishes and universities, Catholic men and women from virtually every continent have engaged in ongoing conversation and dialogue with their Jewish counterparts. This has brought a harvest of good that has helped change minds and hearts and has brought benefits not only to our two communities but to the wider community as well.

There is much to be learned from the Catholic-Jewish dialogue. The first and obvious lesson leads us all to condemn the anti-Semitic incidents that have marred our communities even as we thank the law enforcement officers who have apprehended the two alleged culprits. Second is that our relationship is theologically deep and constantly invites us into a more profound realization of what links us together without making us compromise or relativize what each community holds essential for its identity and life. Third, I believe this dialogue can be a model for us within our communities as well as with other communities of faith.

As we pick up our regular activities after summer holidays, it would be good if we all could learn to relate to one another without hatred and animus. We can agree, and we can disagree. We do not have to demonize the other. We do not have to ridicule the other. We do not have to speak to others in ways that degrade them or accuse them of untold grievances. Quite frankly, there is too much of that kind of speech within our Catholic Church here on Long Island. There are people and groups who are quick to judge the other and label anyone with whom they disagree. What we sadly experience today from the self-centered and self-righteous within our Catholic community can be found in other communities as well.

Yet the Lord calls us to something deeper and more wholesome. The Lord calls us to something that tries to help and not harass, heal and not blister, understand and not polarize. If we could simply attend to the language we use in talking with one another, it would be a step forward. If we then can agree to seek to collaborate with one another in good deeds that give witness to our common commitment to treat one another with dignity and respect, then we will have advanced further down the road to a more civil and civilized society, more respectful and collaborative communities.

As I offer my prayers for Jewish brothers and sisters who have been offended by these reprehensible actions of a few, I offer a prayer to the God who watches over us all that He might heal hearts and open minds to a renewal of civility, mutual respect and openness to one another that will truly show we are brothers and sisters under a God who wants us all to live in His peace.