Oesterreicher, John M.
OESTERREICHER, JOHN M.
Pioneer in Catholic-Jewish relations, author, and editor; b. Stadt-Liebau, Moravia, Feb. 2, 1904; d. New Jersey, April 18, 1993. Oesterreicher's parents, both Jewish, died in the Holocaust, as did the priest who baptized him in 1924. Oesterreicher was ordained a priest in 1927 and was named professor of religion by the University of Vienna in 1935. From 1934 to 1938, he edited a Catholic journal, Die Erfuellung ("Fulfillment"), the purpose of which was to denounce Nazi persecution of Jews. When the Germans entered Vienna, Oesterreicher was interrogated by the Gestapo. He fled in April 1939, reaching Paris that September. There, he published Racisme, Antisémitisme, Antichristianisme (Paris 1939; New York 1943) and made weekly anti-Nazi radio broadcasts. He fled again in June 1940 across the border into Spain, and eventually arrived in the United States on the SS Exeter on November 12, 1940.
Along with parish work for the Archdiocese of New York, Oesterreicher taught at Manhattanville College from 1944 to 1953. Chief among his articles from that period is a study of the Good Friday prayer, "Pro perfidis Judaeis" [Theological Studies 8 (1947): 85–101], in which he suggested that the term perfidis be translated as "unbelieving" rather than the pejorative "perfidious." In 1948, the Sacred Congregation of Rites, under the signature of Pope Pius XII, mandated this change in translation [Acta Apostolicae Sedis 40:342]. In 1955 the same Congregation restored the rite of flectamus genua (kneeling) to the intercession for the Jewish people [Acta Apostolicae Sedis 47:838-47], another change for which Oesterreicher had argued. In 1959, Pope John XXIII eliminated the term perfidis from the Good Friday prayer; following the Second Vatican Council, the prayer was completely revised.
Oesterreicher's book, Walls Are Crumbling: Seven Jewish Philosophers Discover Christ (New York and London 1952) was translated into Dutch (Haarlem 1954), French (Paris 1955), Spanish (Madrid 1961), and Japanese (1969).
On the feast of the Annunciation, March 25, 1953, Oesterreicher signed an agreement with Seton Hall University to establish an Institute of Judeo-Christian Studies, the first such at a major Catholic institution of higher learning. Five "yearbooks" of the Institute, titled The Bridge (New York 1955; 1956; 1958; 1962; 1970), chronicled Jewish-Christian relations before and after the Second Vatican Council.
In 1960, with fourteen other priests, Oesterreicher presented a petition to Augustin Cardinal Bea that the Second Vatican Council consider reconciliation with the Jewish people. In February 1961, he was appointed to the Subcommission for Jewish Questions, which drafted the text of what would become the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate, "On the Church's Relationship to Non-Christian Religions" (Oct. 28, 1965). His "Introduction and Commentary" to the text in H. Vorgrimler, ed., Commentary on the Documents of Vatican II (New York 1969, vol. 3) is considered definitive.
Oesterreicher's prolific writings to 1978 are listed in the festschrift in his honor [A. Finkel and L. Frizzell, eds., Standing before God: Studies on Prayer in Scriptures and Tradition (New York 1981) 393-399] and updated to 1993 in Experiences and Expectations: The Fortieth Anniversary of the Institute of Judeo-Christian Studies (Seton Hall 1993). Major works since then include: Martin Buber and the Christian Way (New York 1986), The New Encounter between Christians and Jews (New York 1986), and God at Auschwitz? (Seton Hall 1993). He served for over two decades as advisor to the U.S. Bishops' Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. He died on Yom ha-Shoah 5753, Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Bibliography: e. l. ehrlich, "In Memoriam John Oesterreicher (1904-1993)," Orientierung 10 (May 1993) 109-110. j. filteau, "Msgr. Oesterreicher Dies: Pioneered Catholic-Jewish Relations," Catholic News Service (Washington, 20 April 1993) 12-13. l. frizzell, ed., "Homilies and Tributes in Memory of Msgr. John M. Oesterreicher," Institute of Judeo-Christian Studies, Seton Hall University (South Orange 1993). "A Pioneer in Christian-Jewish Dialogue," The Tablet (London 1 May 1993) 557. e. weinzierl, "Beginnings of John M. Oesterreicher's Work," in a. finkel and l. frizzell, eds., Standing before God (New York 1981) 13-19.
[e. j. fisher]