How Jews Appreciate Catholics: Three Views

We say: This season of expectation, of wonder at the possibility of God with and among us, is a perfect time to sink into that authentic tradition and to contemplate where we've gone off track.

Listen: Julia Lieblich and Rabbi James Rudin explain what they appreciate about Catholicism. Sociologist Maureen Day offers solutions to polarity within the Catholic Church.

Perspective: As Catholics confront the pathology of sexual abuse among their clergy, I urge them not to abandon or divert attention from two specific aspects of modern Roman Catholicism that I admire: the revolutionary change in the church's relationship with the Jewish people and Judaism, and its remarkable and steadfast commitment to social justice.

Perspective: Irma Hernandez says Our Lady of Guadalupe brought me to Guatemala 25 years ago, and I became known in San Antonio Aguas Calientes as the gringa "who came back."

Perspective: When Catholics today are deciding what place, if any, they want and crave in the church, and what the church will look like going forward, I think the church's rich art history can help look beyond the individual offenders and take a wide-angle view of the faith more broadly.

With all of the dualistic face-offs Catholics are engaged in, we wondered if there was a third party who could join our dance to change the dynamic. So we asked three Jewish writers what value they see in Catholic thought, art and ministry, even amid the tensions and embarrassing scandals within our community.