Sister Margaret Shepherd joined the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion in 1966. In the wake of the more positive attitude of the Church to Jewish-Christian relations, Sr Margaret registered at the Leo Baeck College in north London and completed three years of full time rabbinical training. Her life since that time has been dedicated to improving the relations between Catholics and Jews at the national and international levels. She is Director of the Sion Centre for Dialogue and Encounter in west London, and Advisor on Catholic-Jewish Relations to the Bishops of England and Wales.
Sister Margaret gave a study day at Brentwood Cathedral on 25th October 2014 entitled ‘Milestones in Jewish Catholic Relations’. Margaret noted the fundamental importance of the visit of Jules Isaac to Pope John XXIII in the preparation of the Council, when it was agreed to put on the agenda the ‘history of contempt’ which had characterised relations between Catholics and Jews.
In 1965 the Council produced Nostra Aetate, its Declaration on Non-Christian Religions, which included ground-breaking statements about the attitude of Catholics to Jews. This was the start of a deepening commitment to improve relations, to which Pope John Paul II made a very significant contribution. Sister Margaret also reported on visits of successive Pope to Israel and to the Palestinian Territories.
Sr Margaret invited the audience to visit the website of the Interfaith Department of Scarboro Missions in Toronto, Canada, for a full and detailed presentation of the ‘milestones’, prepared by Sr Lucy Thorson and Murray Watson.