Florida Catholic | Hebrew Catholics

Hebrew Catholics reach back to Judeo–Christian roots

David Moss, president of the Association of Hebrew Catholics, talks about growing up Jewish and his path to Catholicism.

LUCY B. TOBIAS | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Published: 02.22.08

OCALA | As a Jewish boy growing up in Brooklyn,N.Y., David Moss had no use for Catholics. “There was a family of Catholic boys who beat me up because they said I was a Christ killer,” he said.

“The only thing I knew (about Christianity) was the beautiful stories and music around Christmas. I believe Mary put her hooks into me with the ‘Ave Maria’ by Schubert,” he said. “I didn’t understand theology. I just knew this man Jesus, who was supposedly a Jew, had something to do with these people (Christians). He wasn’t Jewish as far as all the Jewish people I knew growing up. We weren’t even supposed to say the name in our house. It almost seemed like a sacrilege.”

Moss raised a family, worked for IBM and searched for the meaning of life by taking liberal arts courses. He ignored religion.

“I thought religion was an antiquated relic from a very ignorant past.”

After 23 years of searching for answers, despair set in.

“I remembered my Jewish elders from the synagogue praying. They believed in God. I thought, ‘Maybe there is something there.’ One day in my office I cried out ‘God, if you really exist I need to know that now.’

“And God came into my office. I don’t know how to explain it. There were clouds and light and then I was back in my office. And I was a completely different person.”

That experience answered questions that had been nagging Moss, he said.

“The answer to existence is God. Sacrificial love exemplar is Jesus himself on the cross. Suffering and sacrifice are the language of love. The natural law is implanted in the heart of every being created by God — conscience is the ‘ought,’ that sense in us of what is right and wrong,” Moss said. “I also knew the answer to a question that I never even asked, that no Jewish boy from Brooklyn would ask — I knew Jesus was God’s son. I knew that and my life was no longer the same.”

The year was 1978. Moss was 38 years old. In February 1979 he entered the Catholic Church. In 1992 he became president of the Association of Hebrew Catholics, a group working to gather Hebrew Catholics and share Jewish roots.

“Hebrew Catholics are saying the Old Testament and all that went before Jesus is part of my heritage. It is also part of every Catholic’s heritage because they are a continuation of biblical Judaism and a fulfillment of it.”

Father Patrick O’Doherty, pastor of Queen of Peace Parish in Ocala, was moved by Moss’ calling when he spoke at the church recently.

“What affected me was his talking about Hebrew Catholics inside the church being called to act as a body. God would use them, like the Legion of Mary, and they would be a beacon light.”

For information on the Association of Hebrew Catholics, visit the Web site at www.hebrewcatholic.org or write 4120 West Pine Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63108 and ask for a free sample copy of the association’s publication.

Hebrew Catholics reach back to Judeo–Christian roots

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