The next move toward favoring the Jews occurred in the official 1997 Catechism of the Catholic Church, which in ¶121, says: “The Old Testament is an indispensable part of Sacred Scripture. Its books are divinely inspired and retain a permanent value, for the Old Covenant has never been revoked.” Here we see echoes of John Paul II’s 1980 speech, quoting him almost verbatim. Notice first that the “Old Testament” is put under the “Old Covenant,” but the author does not tell the reader what “Old Covenant” he has in view. One would think that, since this is the first time such a provocative clause has ever appeared in an official Catholic document, that the author would be compelled to explain it. But there is no footnote, no endnote, no marginal note, or any other kind of note,...
