Fame Comes for the Archbishop

Dexter Van Zile
CAMERA Media Analysis
28 October '10

Lebanese-born Melkite Archbishop Cyrille Salim Bustros garnered worldwide attention at the end of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East in the Vatican when he assailed the belief held by many Jews (and Christians) that God's promise of the land to the Jewish people is irrevocable.

According to CNN reported Bustros asserted on Oct. 25 that “We Christians cannot speak of the 'promised land' as an exclusive right for a privileged Jewish people.” He also stated “This promise was nullified by Christ,” and that “There is no longer a chosen people -- all men and women of all countries have become the chosen people.”

These comments set off a row between Israel and the Vatican but will have little impact on the opinion of lay Catholics in the U.S., most of whom have never heard of the Archbishop or of the community of Greek Melkites that he leads. Still, with his statement, the Archbishop achieved a brief moment of notoriety that will fade long before the damage he has caused.

Archbishop Bustros's post-synod comments harkened back to an era prior to the Second Vatican Council when the Roman Catholic Church embraced a naked supersessionism that contradicts the spirit, if not the letter of Nostra Aetate, a declaration issued by the Second Vatican Council that called for a change in the Church's theological mindset toward the Jewish people. (The Vatican's affirmation of Nostra Aetate was, by the way, opposed by many Arab Christians living in the Middle East for fear that it would underscore the legitimacy of a Jewish state.)

(Read full analysis)

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