Episode 29: Rabbi Abraham Skorka

Daily Theology Podcast

Season 2 of the podcast comes to an end with this very special episode featuring Rabbi Abraham Skorka! He was visiting Saint Leo University for a series of presentations on Catholic-Jewish dialogue, so he graciously sat down with Stephen Okey for this discussion. Rabbi Skorka speaks about the influence of his father on his decision to become a rabbi, his science background and how that affects his religious faith, and his friendship with Pope Francis as an example of interreligious dialogue.

Rabbi Abraham Skorka is the Rector of the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was ordained a rabbi in 1973, and in 1979 he completed a Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Buenos Aires. In 2010, he and then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio published Sobre el cielo y la tierra, which was based on a series of conversations they held for TV on issues ranging from science to faith to abortion to the 1970s in Argentina. Following Bergoglio’s election to the papacy, the text was translated into numerous languages; the English edition is On Heaven and Earth (Image, 2015).

Special thanks for this episode to Dr. Matthew Tapie, Director of the Center for Catholic Jewish Studies at Saint Leo University, for all his work to bring Rabbi Skorka to campus and for making this conversation possible.