Glad You Asked: Should Catholics celebrate Passover?

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Today, many Catholics as well as Christians of other denominations admire and enjoy Jewish traditions and rituals. But it hasn’t always been that way. For centuries, Christians in different times, places, and cultures persecuted Jewish people, even to the point of forbidding the practice of Judaism.

In the Middle Ages, hateful rhetoric about Jewish people and the Jewish faith sometimes prompted pogroms––organized mob attacks––especially during the Christian Holy Week. In Catholic Spain, in the 15th century, Jews were forced to convert to Christianity, and those who refused to do so were expelled from their homes. In Europe in the 19th century, as the Jewish people gained greater freedom and political emancipation, new prejudices arose, including conspiracy theories about international Jewish cabals threatening Christian nations. While Christians were not the only groups who persecuted Jews, modern antisemitism has its seeds in the early church. And Christian acts of violence and injustice against Jewish people are especially shameful, given that Jesus, himself a Jew, taught nonviolence and radical inclusion.

In light of this history, Catholics who are attracted to Jewish rituals such as the Passover Seder need to know not only what the church teaches about these practices, but also how Jewish people regard Christian celebrations of traditional Jewish feasts. On this episode of the podcast, hosts Emily Sanna and Rebecca Bratten Weiss talk to philosopher and interfaith scholar Joshua Stein about the history and significance of the Passover feast and whether Christians should host or celebrate their own Seder meals.

You can learn more about this topic and read some of Stein’s work in the links below.