FRENCH priests on a Visit IO New York's Jewish community have said they received valuable lessons in how to build dialogue between the two faiths.
Fr Patrick Desbois, the French bishops' secretary for Jewish relations said, in an interview on the last day of the group's visit, that direct contact with the community's representatives gave the priests a fresh understanding of Jewish life as it is practiced today in the "diaspora", or outside Israel.
Members of the delegation, chosen by Cardinal JeanMarie Lustiger of Paris, were academics who had to have a background in Jewish and Hebrew studies. Fr Desbois said delegation members — who included Auxiliary Bishop Pierre d'Ornellas of Paris and seven other priests, two deacons and two lay men — came with a readiness to build a new relationship, rather than rehash old controversies.