Is The Pope Going To Allow Bishops To Declare Replacement Theology In Direct Contravention To The Book of Romans and the Vatican II?

(update from midnight rider at bottom)

Israeli FM: Catholic Bishops' Synod "has become a forum for political attacks on Israel in the best history of Arab propaganda"

From Jihad Watch:

According to this report, the Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop Cyril Bustros "then escalated the situation by declaring that the original promises made by God to the children of Israel 'were nullified by Christ. There is no longer a chosen people.'"

"Israel slams 'political attacks' by Catholic bishops," from AFP, October 24:

JERUSALEM -- Israel on Sunday slammed critical remarks made by Middle East Catholic bishops after a meeting chaired by Pope Benedict XVI as "political attacks" on the Jewish state. "We express our disappointment that this important synod has become a forum for political attacks on Israel in the best history of Arab propaganda," Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said in a statement.

"The synod was hijacked by an anti-Israel majority," he added....
"Recourse to theological and biblical positions which use the Word of God to wrongly justify injustices is not acceptable," the synod said.

Archbishop Cyril Salim Bustros, head of the commission which drew up the statement, went one step further, saying: "The theme of the Promised Land cannot be used as a basis to justify the return of the Jews to Israel and the expatriation of the Palestinians."

"For Christians, one can no longer talk of the land promised to the Jewish people," the Lebanese-born head of the Greek Melkite Church in the United States said, because the "promise" was "abolished by the presence of Christ."

Ayalon said he was "especially appalled" at those remarks.

"We call on the Vatican to (distance) themselves from Archbishop Bustros's comments, which are a libel against the Jewish people and the state of Israel and should not be construed as the Vatican's official position."...

I guess the Bishops have not cracked their Bible lately. Here's what the Book of Romans has to say on the subject:

¹I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. ²God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don't you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: ³"Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me"^[a]? ⁴And what was God's answer to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal."^[b] ⁵So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. ⁶And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.^[c]

¹³I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry ¹⁴in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. ¹⁵For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? ¹⁶If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.
¹⁷If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, ¹⁸do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. ¹⁹You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." ²⁰Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. ²¹For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
²²Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. ²³And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. ²⁴After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

All Israel Will Be Saved

²⁵I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. ²⁶And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
"The deliverer will come from Zion;
he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
²⁷And this is^[f] my covenant with them
when I take away their sins."^[g] ²⁸As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, ²⁹for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.

I could be mistaken, but it seems to me the Bishops are being arrogant towards the Jews, and as such, they are putting themselves in danger of being cut off from the root.

Am I reading that right?


You know, tell me if you think I'm wrong.

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midnight rider adds: Please bear in mind the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Melkite Church are not the same, though consider themselves in communion with one another.

What happened at this Synod were 44 recommendations from the Melkite Bishops to The Pope mainly for bolstering Christian Life and Unity in their regions. The Pope takes them under consideration and will issue a document on them later.

HOWEVER -- The Synod does not necessarily speak for The Vatican, The Pope or The Roman Church. And further, this article makes it appear that this was some sort of official position or statement from The Greek Church (and it implies Roman Church) as a whole.

It was not. They were his own comments, made during the final press conference of the Synod. They are not (as far as I know) part of the 44 propositions presented to Benedict, part of which reads “We believe in the promises of God and his covenant given to Abraham and to you. We believe that the Word of God is eternal.”

This is in no way, nor should it be construed as, an abrogation or refutation of Nostra Aetate. This was one idiot speaking on his own.

As such I, too, would hope Benedict and the Vatican would refute these statements, or distance themselves from them.

And so, too, should the Patriarch of Antioch.