Participants of the Study Tour visit the death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau where an estimated 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, were killed amid the horror of the Nazi regime during World War II.  

Participants of the Study Tour were Bishop Robert Baker of Charleston, South Carolina; Bishop Richard Malone of Portland, Maine; Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester, Massachusetts; Bishop Placido Rodriguez of Lubbock, Texas; Bishop Arthur Serratelli of Paterson, New Jersey; and Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; two Orthodox rabbis – Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg of the Jewish Life Network, New York, and Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard of the National Jewish Center for Learning & Leadership (CLAL), New York.

The Study Tour included a discussion with Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg and Dr. Cernera about how Jews and Christians work in different ways to repair the world. Rabbi Greenberg spoke from the perspective of strengthening faith from within the memories of tragedy. Dr. Cernera spoke from the standpoint of finding hope in fulfilling God's commandment of love in the face of evil. The parallels shared were more than platitudes and superficial information; both presentations and subsequent discussions came from the strong commitments to their own religious tradition and a conviction that dialogue was a necessary part of their religion's authentic expression.

On the first evening, the group attended a liturgy at the chapel where Pope John Paul II was ordained. Invited by Krakow's new archbishop, Stanislas Dziwisz, the group learned that he had served as the pope's personal secretary for more than 40 years. Later at dinner, Archbishop Stanislas brought the witty personality of John Paul to light by recalling stories of their boyhood friendship. The archbishop also remembered the day when he was standing amidst the crowd in St. Peter's Square in Rome and was shocked to hear that Karol Wojtyla had been selected to be pope. Running to congratulate his friend, he was both surprised and humbled to be granted immediate access to see him. The two friends talked of home for a while and then the pope said to him, “Now what are you going to do?”  Archbishop Dziwisz answered, “I would like to go back to Krakow now.”  To which the newly-elected pope replied, “Me too!” 

On the second part of the Study Tour in Rome, the group met with leaders of the Vatican's Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews as well as Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, to discuss ways to improve interreligious dialogue in the United States and around the world. From there, they journeyed to the Great Synagogue of Rome, where two rabbis described the history of Jews in Rome, the city where the Jewish people have the longest continuous history in Europe.  Afterwards, the group met in a nearby Jewish school where Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard spoke about prayer and liturgy in the Jewish religion. The discussions evolved into an engaging conversation about the similar and different approaches that the two traditions assume in catechesis. Later, the group traveled to meet Ambassador Oded Ben-Hur, Israeli Ambassador to the Holy See, for a discussion centered on the State of Israel that ultimately stimulated a deeper understanding of its importance to world Jewry.

Throughout the Study Tour, Rabbi Joseph Ehrenkranz made it clear that the purpose of this trip was to emphasize theological dialogue and to promote the Church's teachings towards Judaism outlined in the 1965 Vatican declaration, Nostra Aetate.  But he also said that in the midst of their shared time and study he had made six new valued friends—each willing to shoulder the responsibility for Christian-Jewish understanding and each working to carry forward in their respective communities the importance of interreligious dialogue. “This Study Tour could not have taken place 40 years ago – it would have been unthinkable,” he said.  “The strong and growing friendship between Christians and Jews is a direct result of Nostra Aetate. And today there is a solid body of Church teachings that makes the return to anti-Semitism literally impossible:  Anti-Semitism has been declared by the Church to be anti-Christian.”

A final note is that this Study Tour took place one week before an international symposium commemorating the 40^th anniversary of the document, Nostra Aetate, commenced at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. This conference was co-sponsored by Sacred Heart University's Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding, Georgetown University, Boston College's Center for Christian-Jewish Learning, and the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago.