Text from “A Journey of Hope” to mark the 60th anniversary of "Nostra Aetate"

Introductory text from “A Journey of Hope” from the Vatican dicasteries for the Doctrine of the Faith, Promoting Christian Unity and Interreligious Dialogue to mark the upcoming 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate.

On 28 October 1965, the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration Nostra Aetate “on the relation of the Church with non-Christian religions” opened a new chapter in the history of relations among Catholics, Jews, and believers of other faiths and spiritual traditions. Far more than a mere text, it marked a profound change in the Church’s understanding and expression of her relationship with followers of other religions. In that Declaration, the Church explicitly affirmed that she “rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions,” inviting the faithful to regard with esteem and respect “the manner of life and conduct, the precepts and doctrines.” Written amid the creative and fraternal vitality of the Council, it remains highly relevant in a world marked, on the one hand, by widespread attitudes of closed-mindedness and, on the other, by a search for a peaceful coexistence within a universal citizenship founded on fraternity and mutual recognition.

 Seen in this light, Nostra Aetate aligns with the other conciliar Declaration, Dignitatis Humanae, which focuses on the right to religious freedom. No respectful relationship with other religions can be sincere or feasible without a corresponding respect for the religious freedom of others: “This demand for freedom in human society chiefly regards the quest for the values proper to the human spirit. It regards, in the first place, the free exercise of religion in society.” This conviction leads us to call for the same freedom for Christians living in countries where they are a minority.

Sixty years after its promulgation, Nostra Aetate continues to inspire the Church’s pastoral and theological orientations and to nourish the dialogue that is the very form in which human life unfolds, and which has become all the more indispensable in the societies of our time. Such dialogue, however, also constitutes an abiding challenge: How can fidelity to Christian identity be reconciled with a sincere openness to otherness? How can the call to universal fraternity be lived concretely in societies marked by increasing cultural and religious diversity, by war and violence, and by a growing trend toward secularization? This commemorative document seeks to retrace the essential stages of interreligious dialogue since Nostra Aetate, to assess its achievements and challenges, and to outline some perspectives for the future.

The Declaration Nostra Aetate emerged in the aftermath of the Second World War. Initially, it was not conceived as a document about dialogue with other religions, but rather as a response to the tragic consequences of antisemitism, which culminated in the Shoah. Already deeply sensitive to this issue, Pope Saint John XXIII met with the Jewish scholar Jules Isaac through the mediation of Maria Vingiani, founder of the Secretariat for Ecumenical Activities. Following this encounter, he entrusted Cardinal Augustin Bea with drafting a conciliar text aimed at healing and renewing the relationship between the Church and the Jewish people. This project was further developed during the sessions of the Second Vatican Council and ultimately took concrete form in a document that, like the mustard seed in the Gospel (cf. Mk 4:31-32), grew beyond all expectations, becoming a great tree that embraced not only relations with Judaism but also dialogue with the various religions. In it, one can discern an ever more universal openness, which the Church wishes to offer to her brothers and sisters of other religious traditions in a spirit of respect and a shared pursuit of truth.

Official and institutional Catholic-Jewish dialogue finds its foundation in paragraph four of the Declaration. This is the first magisterial statement that clearly recognizes the Jewish roots of Christianity. It cites Romans 9:4-5, which affirms that the patriarchs belong to the People of Israel and that Christ, according to the flesh, descended from them. The Declaration also states that “the Apostles, the Church’s mainstay and pillars, as well as most of the early disciples who proclaimed Christ’s Gospel to the world, sprang from the Jewish people.” Speaking of the person of Jesus, a document of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity (today the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity) explains: “Jesus was and always remained a Jew….Jesus is fully a man of his time and of his environment: the Jewish Palestinian one of the first century, the anxieties and hopes of which he shared. This cannot but underline both the reality of the Incarnation and the very meaning of the history of salvation, as it has been revealed in the Bible.

On 28 October 1965, the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration Nostra Aetate “on the relation of the Church with non-Christian religions” opened a new chapter in the history of relations among Catholics, Jews, and believers of other faiths and spiritual traditions. Far more than a mere text, it marked a profound change in the Church’s understanding and expression of her relationship with followers of other religions. In that Declaration, the Church explicitly affirmed that she “rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions,” inviting the faithful to regard with esteem and respect “the manner of life and conduct, the precepts and doctrines.” Written amid the creative and fraternal vitality of the Council, it remains highly relevant in a world marked, on the one hand, by widespread attitudes of closed-mindedness and, on the other, by a search for a peaceful coexistence within a universal citizenship founded on fraternity and mutual recognition.

 Seen in this light, Nostra Aetate aligns with the other conciliar Declaration, Dignitatis Humanae, which focuses on the right to religious freedom. No respectful relationship with other religions can be sincere or feasible without a corresponding respect for the religious freedom of others: “This demand for freedom in human society chiefly regards the quest for the values proper to the human spirit. It regards, in the first place, the free exercise of religion in society.” This conviction leads us to call for the same freedom for Christians living in countries where they are a minority.

Sixty years after its promulgation, Nostra Aetate continues to inspire the Church’s pastoral and theological orientations and to nourish the dialogue that is the very form in which human life unfolds, and which has become all the more indispensable in the societies of our time. Such dialogue, however, also constitutes an abiding challenge: How can fidelity to Christian identity be reconciled with a sincere openness to otherness? How can the call to universal fraternity be lived concretely in societies marked by increasing cultural and religious diversity, by war and violence, and by a growing trend toward secularization? This commemorative document seeks to retrace the essential stages of interreligious dialogue since Nostra Aetate, to assess its achievements and challenges, and to outline some perspectives for the future.

The Declaration Nostra Aetate emerged in the aftermath of the Second World War. Initially, it was not conceived as a document about dialogue with other religions, but rather as a response to the tragic consequences of antisemitism, which culminated in the Shoah. Already deeply sensitive to this issue, Pope Saint John XXIII met with the Jewish scholar Jules Isaac through the mediation of Maria Vingiani, founder of the Secretariat for Ecumenical Activities. Following this encounter, he entrusted Cardinal Augustin Bea with drafting a conciliar text aimed at healing and renewing the relationship between the Church and the Jewish people. This project was further developed during the sessions of the Second Vatican Council and ultimately took concrete form in a document that, like the mustard seed in the Gospel (cf. Mk 4:31-32), grew beyond all expectations, becoming a great tree that embraced not only relations with Judaism but also dialogue with the various religions. In it, one can discern an ever more universal openness, which the Church wishes to offer to her brothers and sisters of other religious traditions in a spirit of respect and a shared pursuit of truth.

Official and institutional Catholic-Jewish dialogue finds its foundation in paragraph four of the Declaration. This is the first magisterial statement that clearly recognizes the Jewish roots of Christianity. It cites Romans 9:4-5, which affirms that the patriarchs belong to the People of Israel and that Christ, according to the flesh, descended from them. The Declaration also states that “the Apostles, the Church’s mainstay and pillars, as well as most of the early disciples who proclaimed Christ’s Gospel to the world, sprang from the Jewish people.” Speaking of the person of Jesus, a document of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity (today the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity) explains: “Jesus was and always remained a Jew….Jesus is fully a man of his time and of his environment: the Jewish Palestinian one of the first century, the anxieties and hopes of which he shared. This cannot but underline both the reality of the Incarnation and the very meaning of the history of salvation, as it has been revealed in the Bible.

A version of this article appeared in the September 27, 2026 issue of The Catholic Register.