by Trevor Grundy, ENInews

Religious leaders are hailing Queen Elizabeth II's historic state visit to Ireland next week as a sign of reconciliation following centuries of sectarian hatred and violence.

Arriving in Dublin on May 17 for a four-day visit, the queen will be the first British monarch to set foot in the republic since its founding in 1923 and the first to travel to Dublin since King George V in 1911. She is scheduled to visit Dublin's Garden of Remembrance, which honors those who died fighting to free Ireland from British rule. She also will visit Croke Park Stadium, where British troops killed 14 people in 1920, and attend a state dinner in Dublin Castle, long a symbol of British power in Ireland.

The visit "will sustain a momentum of reconciliation," Archbishop Alan Harper, primate of the (Anglican) Church of Ireland, told ENInews. "It is an ... indication of the transformation of the relationship between the two countries. It has been very widely welcomed in the Republic and in Northern Ireland and is being looked forward to with genuine enthusiasm."

He also said that "a huge amount of work among the main churches has also gone into transforming relationships. From the point of view of sectarian divisions in Ireland, not just Northern Ireland, the queen's visit is another opportunity to build more bridges and further heal divisions. In the end it as much about human relationships of trust and respect as it is about differences of practice and doctrine."

The third phase of ARCIC, or Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, started on Tuesday at the monastery of Bose in northern Italy. Nestled in the foothills of the Alps, the monastery, founded on the closing day of the Second Vatican Council in December 1965, is a haven of peaceful reflection and prayer, but also a place of important ecumenical encounters.

Within its secluded walls, the two teams of Catholic and Anglican experts are gathered from May 17th to 27th focusing on the theme 'Church as Communion – local and universal.' The discussions will look back at achievements of the previous ARCIC dialogues and explore pressing ethical issues that are challenging the teaching of both Churches.

To find out more, Vatican Radio spoke to the two co-secretaries of the meeting - Msgr. Mark Langham of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity and Canon Alyson Barnett-Cowan, head of the Unity, Faith and Order office of the Anglican Communion. Listen here: Real or MP3 or visit the Vatican Radio site here

The National Council of Synagogues and the Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) discussed "Sources of Authority in Catholicism and Judaism" at their semi-annual consultation in New York City on May 17. Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta, Chairman of the Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, and Rabbi Alvin Berkun of Pittsburgh, Chairman of the National Council of Synagogues, presided.

Father James Massa, executive director of the USCCB Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, spoke on the "sources of authority" in the Catholic theological tradition. He noted both similarities and differences between Catholic and Jewish ways to interpret sacred texts and pass on religious beliefs and practices.

"One of the obvious differences between our two faith communities is that while no one rabbi or religious body can speak for all Jews, the Church has a 'Magisterium' made of bishops in communion with the pope, whose interpretation and application of the word of God can be binding on all Catholic believers," Father Massa said.

His presentation highlighted the levels of authoritative teaching in the Church, to which are owed corresponding degrees of assent. Father Massa noted that some teachings on Jews and Judaism found in Nostra aetate, the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on Non-Christian Religions, reaches the level of dogma or defined doctrine. "One cannot hold to the charge that the Jewish people, either in the first century or at any other time, are responsible for the death of Jesus (the so-called charge of deicide) without falling out of communion with the Catholic Church. It contradicts both Vatican II (1962-1965) and the Council of Trent (1548-1563), not to mention a proper reading of the New Testament," Father Massa stated.

Father Massa suggested that when Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI affirmed that for Catholics the Jewish covenant remains a living and positive reality today, they were not speaking on the same level as an ecumenical council like Vatican II. "However, their teaching reflects the deeper impulses of the council, which were directed at laying to rest the teaching of contempt (that God had rejected the Jewish people) and at putting Jewish-Catholic relations on a new course of friendship and shared commitment to healing the world. Such authentic teaching could achieve—God willing—an even more authoritative and solemn expression by some future pope or council," he noted.