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The Canadian Jewish New^, Thursday, Jiine 26, 1986-Page 9
Leading CathoUctheor^^ apostate
RABBI DOVV MARMUR
The fact thai Gregory Baum, the distinguish-. 'ed Canadian; Catholic theologiah,. had.Jewish^^ parents has tempted some to describe hini as a meshunimad; an apostate. He is,, of course, nothing of the sort:.His departure this.summer from Toronto to: Montreal to teach at. McGill University, gives us Jews anopportunity to pay tribute to his enormous contribution to Jewi.sh-. Christian understanding.:
Let us gel the question of apostasy out of the wayTirsl. Gregory Baum\s.parents were German . Jews; but he was brought up as a Protestant. With, the advent of Hitler, he had to leave Germany and. after a short spell in England, came to Canada. It is here, that he Gonvcrted to Roman Catholicism. He never left Judaism, lor he was never in it; if he abandoned any religioiJs iradi-. lion, it was Prote'stantism in favor of Catholicism — not Judaism in" favor of Christianity.
It is. of cour,se.po.S;.sible that Baum's interest in Jewi.sh-Chri.stian relations originates in his Jewish roots, but its basic motivation is to be sought in his theology, not in his psychology. His openness to new ideas.and his firm belief in the necessity for the church to be subjected to.careful scrutiny has led him to take the question of it.s relationship to. Judaism very seriously;
For almost three decades Gregory Baum has spoken and written about the attitude of Christianity and the (Church to Judaism and the Jewish people, in that time he has been one of the most persuasive advocates within the Ciatholic Church for tolerance and understanding. As the only Canadian advisor during Vatican II, the tiine when the Ciatholic Church tried to come to terms with the new age, and the experience of the Holocaust, gave him a unique opportunity to be influential and : effective.
That the Holocaust should have affected him is obvious. After all; he and his.family, we're among its victims; But what stirred Gregory ' Baum, the. then Catholic priest and young theologian, into a Christian response was the hao]^ Jesus and. Israel, hy the distinguished French-Jewish historian Jules Isaac. In it Isaac shows the close link between ahti-Jewish.con-tempt arid Christian preaching from the New Testament.
Baum was moved to respond — by writing an apologia. "I readily acknowledged the anti-Jewish trends present in Christian preaching." he wrote later, "but I then thought that it was my religious duty as a Christian theologian to de-feiid the New Testament itself frdrri the accusation (if prejudice and. falsification." The result W'as tfie Jews ami the Gospel which Baum published in 1961.
In that book Baum acknowledged the reality of ChrisStian anti-semitism but insisted that; it . belonged to the laterchurch. The ostensibly anti-semitic passages in the New Testament should be interpreted. accbrding to.the ear 1 ier Baum. in ways that reject the charge of anti-semitism;
By 1974, when RosenriaryRuether's penetrating analysis of the Christian theological roots of., anti-semitisrh. Faith, and Fratricide, apfkared/ Baum was ready to change his mind. He had read the book in manuscript and.when it was published, it included a lengthy introduction by him in . which he admitted the change in him^
Baiim now wrestled wiUi the difficulty in a new. .way. He recognized that; if the Christian theologian bases himself on the New Testanient and its tradition, he, or she, will find it impossi-■ ble to formulate directions for the church which will eliminate the anti-sennitic material. If. on the other hand, the Christian theologiian does not remove these elements, nothing will hav^ been learned from the Holocaust and the Christian antecedents of anti-Jewish prejudice.
His solution was to ask new questions: "But what if. God is addres.sing the church anew ■■ through the awful event of the Holocaust? What . if a message is revealed there, in the light of which w'einust examine the earlier Christian religion?" -
Emil Fackenheim, Baum's collaigue and friend ,. in.Tqronto, had written tron.i.a distinctly Jewish . ' perspective about the commanding voice at Au.schwitz telling the Jew to survive. God. as it _ were, had-added a.postscript at Au.schwitz to.the • commandments He gave at Sinai: don't give Hitler a posthurrious victory but survive as Jews.
Baum tried to formulate something similar for the church byvsuggesting that what it considers to be God's word in the New Testament is in-sufficient to eradicate the evil of anti-semitism. It must learn from the Holocaust what its teachings can lead to and thus hear God again dislosing His will to the church:
'*The Holocaust tejaches thechul-chthat any monopolistic claim to divine tnith or any form~T of ecclesiastical selfrelevatiori will eventually -trianslate itself;„— because Christianity has
achieved cultural donninance, eVen if its ntembership should diminish — into social attitudes and political action and hence generate grave injustices that eventually accumulate to become major crimes.
'.'Christian love — the subjective factor — is unable to stop the harmful effects of the .symbols of power and domination — the objective factor — woven into Christian preaching and teaching, this, I hold, i.s thie message of Auschwit/ addressed to the church." . Many Christians have come to. hear that niessage as Gregoi^'Baum had formulated it. His contribution to Jewi.sh-Christian.underslandihg. cannot, therefore, be overestimated. The task he has set lor himself has become the objective of . many other thoughtful Christians; "Listening to God's.judgment on the Auschwitz Holocaust. Christian theologians are summoned to remove the eiementsvqf death from the Christian message of life and'to reinterpret, if need be in a radical way. the .self-understanding of the Christian . church." ■■
In a recent .symposium, held at St. Michael's , College. Toronto, on the eve of his departure tor Montreal. Gregory Baum declared.that he was proud to belong to a church that can change its mind. As Jews we hiive reason to be proud to pay tribute, to a Christian theologian not afraid to change his mind. .. We salute him noionlv on account of his in-
volvcnicnt with Jewish-Christian dialogue. There^ are other areas that bring him clo.se to us. . Firstly, his passionjor scKiiil just ice. Gregory Baum is considered a thei)logian of the Left not because he is a. pt^litican buf, hecause he: is a follower of the Hebrew Prophets and of his own Christian tradition; Hcsees the pursuit qf justice as a primary religious obligation and he regards speaking out on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves as his .duty: .
He is not Satisfied \vith vestiges of Victorian philanthropy but demands.structures that will. safeguard the dignity of: the individual- as a creature of God.
.Gregory Baum is sensitive to the suffering in the world and. con.scious.of its increase: with technological "progress." But he refuses to be demoralized by it. At the .syiiipoSjum;. he reflected on thefact that his friends regard him as always .cheerful: He ascribed it to his belief, that in the face of so much suffering, we must; devise., strategies that will counteract depre.ssion and despair.
I cannot think of a religious attitudie more characteristically "Jewish" than this one. But my aim is not to claim him for Judaism — only to express gratitude for his influence on the church in Canada and beyond.
Baiim's move to Montreal will not deprive us of his writings and his teachings, but it will remove him from his many Jewish' friends, in ,
Gregory Baum
Toronto. Let us hope that the Montreal Jewish community Will enable him to e.stabli.sh contacts and to provide him whh opportunities for sharing his profound insights on a subject which is of vital concern to Jews and,Christians alike.
Non-advei^ariai techniques^^ a
ChoMge wgedin
LORNE H. VVOLFSON, a partner in the Toronto law firm of Torkin, Manes & Cohen, discuses the problem of.divorce. A large pior-tion of Wolfsdn's civil litigation practice is in the area of family law.
AvS a family lawyer, I witness daily the inherent destructiyeness of the process of divorce.. Whether the issue is the division of a multi-million dollar family business or what time on Sunday night Susie should be returned from her visit with her father, each stage, in the process renews and magnifies' the anger and anguish "associated with thebreakdown of the marriage.:
The current divorce statistics are staggering;: In 192IVthe annual divorce rate in Canada was 6.4 per 100,000 population. In 1946. it was 63.1. In 1969. the rate was.124.2. By 1983. it reached 275'5 — 43 times the 1921 rate: Over■12% of Canadian/emales and 10% of all males surveyed in a 1984 Statistics Canada study indicated that they had exp>erienced divorce.
It is currently estirhated that one out of three new.marriages will end in divorce and that 40% of all Canadian children will live in a single-: parent family for some of their formative years ^
With the rising tide of divorce cases has come an increiased realization of the inadequacies of our: current system for resolving these disputes. In reipent years, there has been a growing consensus among judges, family law lawyers, marriage and family therapists, and mental health prpfes-^ sibnal's that our traditional adversarial system is completely unsuited for the resolution of matrimonial disputes.
The adversary .System promotes hostility and. further polarizes'the parties: It is slow, inflexi-: ble, emotionally draining, and expensive. Family lawyiers are regularly called: upon to perform counseling functions for'which they are totally unqualified.
. Even when the sy.stem works, and a decision is finally niade, ofteneitheror both spouses will not accept that decision. Kidnapping orchildren by ntVn-custddial parents, violence against children and spouses, and fioutihg of support. orders arc repeated in ever-increasing numbers. As family therapist Barbara Irving has noted, "Increasingly, it has become clear that custody andacccess are not legal problems with-human implications; rather they are human problems : \vith legal implications." ■ One way in which we as family lawyers have : tried to dealwith the human problems ourclient.s have presented is by increasingly turning to professional counseling in our community. Counseling can be geared to either reconciliation or separation. Since 1968 the Divorce Aet has re-: quired every lawyer to discuss with each divorce client the possibility of reconciliation and to inform the client of the marriagie counseling or guidance facilities available in the community. Unfortunately, in the vast majority of cases, by the time the spouse has reached a lawyer's Office, reconciliation is no longer a realistic possibility.
In many cases what the client need.s is hot advice as to how to try to keep a failing marriage together, but rather assistance in coping with the Consequences of separation and divorce; Many private and public organizations (such as the Jewish Family & Child Service pf Metrojpolitan Toronto (a member of the United Way), now offer, individual and group therapy to assist separating spouses understand the legal, process and the issues involved in the separation and divorce experience, to help individuals adjust to being single agaip; to help both parents and children cope with .separation and divorce, and to deal with theissues and problems arising out of single-parenting, remarriage, and step- . parenting. .
Recognizing the limitations of the adver-sarial process, many lawyers, have begun to. recommend to their clients an aiternative to litigation: family mediation. What is it?
are not yet available.
While different circumstances will require different mediation techniques, the process of. mediation can be thought bf in terms of five stages: (1) orientation and introduction, laying the ground rules, establishing trust; (2) defining the issues, disclosure of relevant information and data, clarifying goals and positions of the parties; (3) working through and resolving the issues by negotiation, coriipromise, and mutual accbm-mcklation; (4):reaching an initial .settlement and drafting a tentative agreement for review and discussion by the whole family; and (5) agreement reviewed and apprbved by respective lawyers and finalized by the couple.
In recent years rnany private practitioners and public agencies have begun to offer mediation services. Recognizing the need for such a service in'lhe Toronto Jewish community, the Jewish :Family & Child Service of Metropolitan Tofon-
Family mediation is a process in which a qualified and impartial third party (the mediator) helps family members resolve; their disputes by agreement. Research has shown that mediation leads to greater satisfaction with the: outcome of the divorce proceedings, less emotional turmoil, reduced costs, and increased adherence to the terms of medliated: agreements.Mediated agreements are more likely to result in arrangements for joint custody, or at least broader access, than are court judgments.
A major boost for the family mediation movement has come with the proclamation of the new Divorce Act on May 1. 1986. For the first time, lawyers,are required to discuss with clients before initialing divorce proceedings the advisability of : negotiating is.sues such as custody, access, and support, and to inform their clients of the mediation facilities available in the community that might, be able to assist in such negotiations. Despite strong: pressure from many groups, the , ininister of justice declined to impose a scheme of compulsory mediation. He defended his decision on the grounds that mediation only works because it is voluntary (this ensures a greater commitnient by the spouses to respect the terms""^ of any resulting agreement) and that there are many places in Canada where hiediation services -
to established a family mediation program in Aprilof 1984. V
The results to date have been encouraging. Referrals have come frorn family lawyers, the Official Guai-dian's office, other branches of Jewish Family & Child.Services, or.word of mouth.
In many cases formal agreements have been reached; in other ca.ses, the mediators have assisted in creating, new patterns of communication so that agreements iilready in place can be maintained or made more workable.:
Where children are involved, the result has often been to shift the parties' focus from their own concerns and desires to the need of the children. In those cases where the spouses' emotional level or the timing of the referral made mediation iinpossibie, the parties have been provided w ith counseling and referred to appropriaite programs offered by JF&CS or others.
Counseling and mediation have proven their effectiveness in helping separating couples resolve their emotional and legal cc)nfljcls in a way that minimizes the risks to the psychological and financialhealth of all members of the family, particularly the children. While these alternatives to the adversarial process will probably not reduce the frequency of diybrce, they can and do reduce the real damage done by divorce, provided that they are resorted to early enough.