Nostra aetate

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Synagoga and Ecclesia in Our Time (2015), sculpture by Joshua Koffman at the Jesuit-run Saint Joseph's University, Philadelphia, commemorating Nostra aetate.

Nostra aetate (from

Vatican II, an ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. It was promulgated on 28 October 1965 by Pope Paul VI.[1] Its name comes from its incipit, the first few words of its opening sentence, as is tradition. It passed the Council by a vote of 2,221 to 88 of the assembled bishops
.

It is the shortest of the 16 final documents of the Council and "the first in

periti, such as John M. Oesterreicher, Gregory Baum and Bruno Hussar.[4][5]

Following an approach by

Christian antisemitism" had prepared the way for the Holocaust, a sympathetic Pope John XXIII endorsed the creation of a document which would address a new, less adversarial approach to the relationship between the Catholic Church and Rabbinic Judaism. Within the Church, conservative Cardinals were suspicious and Middle Eastern Catholics strongly opposed the creation of such a document. With the Arab–Israeli conflict in full swing, the governments of Arab world such as Egypt (in particular), Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq vocally lobbied against its development (the document was subjected to several leaks during its development due to the involvement of the intelligence agencies of several nations[citation needed]). Jewish organisations such as the American Jewish Committee, B'nai B'rith, and the World Jewish Congress also lobbied for their side with the assistance of liberal clergymen.[6] After going through numerous drafts, compromises were made and a statement was added on Islam to mollify the security concerns of the Arab Christians. Finally, statements on Eastern religions, Buddhism and Hinduism
were also added.

History of the document

Before his death in 1963, Pope John XXIII wrote a statement which he intended to be read aloud in all Roman Catholic Churches of the world on a fixed date:

“We are conscious today that many many centuries of blindness have cloaked our eyes so that we can no longer either see the beauty of Thy Chosen People nor recognize in their faces the features of our privileged brethren. We realize that the mark of Cain stands upon our foreheads. Across the centuries our brother Abel has lain in the blood which we drew or shed the tears we caused by forgetting Thy Love. Forgive us for the curse we falsely attached to their name as Jews. Forgive us for crucifying Thee a second time in their flesh. For we knew not what we did. . . .” [7]

Originally, Nostra aetate was only supposed to focus on the relationship between the Catholic church and Judaism. There were five different drafts of the document before a final version was accepted. Some bishops and cardinals objected, including Middle Eastern bishops who were unsympathetic to the new state of Israel.

Cardinal Bea decided to create a less contentious document which would stress ecumenism between the Catholic Church and all non-Christian faiths. While coverage of Hinduism and Buddhism is brief, two of the document's five sections are devoted to Islam and Judaism.[8]

Title Date Author
Decree on the Jews (Decretum de Iudaeis) 1 November 1961 Written by Secretariat for Christian Unity
On the Attitude of Catholics Toward Non-Christians and Especially Toward Jews 8 November 1963 Written by Secretariat for Christian Unity
Appendix 'On the Jews' to the "Declaration on Ecumenism" 1 March 1964 Written by Secretariat for Christian Unity
On the Jews and Non-Christians 1 September 1964 Written by Second Vatican Council Coordinating Commission
Declaration on the Church's Relationship to Non-Christian Religions 18 November 1964 Written by Secretariat for Christian Unity
Amendments to Section 4 1 March 1965 Written by Secretariat for Christian Unity

Before the Council: Decretum de Iudaeis, 1960–1962

SECU
to prepare a document on Catholic-Jewish relations for the Second Vatican Council.

The specific origins of Nostra aetate can be traced directly to a meeting between

Christian anti-semitism").[9] Roncalli, more so than his predecessors, was favourably disposed to such a suggestion; previously as the Archbishop Apostolic Delegate to Turkey he had a long relationship with Jewish communities and since being raised to the Papacy in 1958, had ushered in a period of "openness to the world" (what was called giovanissimo).[9] Roncalli had already removed from the Good Friday prayer for the Jews the term "perfidious" (meaning faithless) in 1959.[11]

Isaac, a French-born Jew, had a long history of activism in regards to Jewish ethno-religious concerns, tracing back to the

Marranos and accusations of Jewish involvement in anti-Christian revolutionary movements) and that Isaac's theories merely aimed to heap calumny upon the Catholic Church, accusing it of injustice.[13][14][15]

John XXIII had created the

religious indifferentism.[16]

Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity
.

If predominantly Latin Catholic conservatives within the Roman Curia were opposed to any document on the Jews for theological reasons, then the Arab world (whether Muslim or Christian) was concerned with it for immanently political reasons, relating to the Arab–Israeli conflict.[11] Egypt, then under the leadership of Gamal Abdel Nasser, particularly concerned itself with all Vatican documents on the Jews which were published since the time of Isaac's visit to Roncalli back in 1960.[11] The Voice of the Arabs, based in Cairo, ascribed this move to a "Zionist plot to capitalize on the Vatican Council in order to further the oppression of the Palestinian refugees."[11] The Lebanese Embassy and the Egyptian Embassy in Rome made their complaints known to the Vatican.[11] In spite of this, Roncalli allowed the SECU under Bea to continue its work on a document on Jewish-Catholic relations. Bea openly met with Ralph Friedman and Zacariah Shuster[17] of the American Jewish Committee at Rome in 1961, inviting them to submit a memorandum on anti-Jewish elements in Catholic textbooks and liturgy. The AJC responded to the SECU with two documents; "The Image of the Jew in Catholic Teaching" by Judith Banki[18] and then "Anti-Jewish Elements in Catholic Liturgy"; outlining the changes to Church teachings and practices that they wanted the planned Council to implement.[19][20][17] As part of this, Bea also agreed to meet with Abraham Joshua Heschel of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and Max Horkheimer of the Frankfurt School in November 1961 to discuss new Church approaches to the Jews.[17]

With the Curial conservatives—largely from Italy and Spain—and the Arab Christians now on the backfoot, a different approach was presented; the security of

Commentary Magazine, an American Jewish publication, also claimed in an article published in 1965, that Roncalli intended to set up a permanent Secretariat for Jewish Relations after the council, the SECU itself would be permanent and that non-Christian advisers would be permitted to attend the council and be able to submit documents to it, despite not being members of the Catholic Church.[11]

Working underneath Bea were four clerics; John M. Oesterreicher, Gregory Baum, Leo Rudloff and Georges Tavard.[21] The German, Karl Thieme, who was not involved in the drafting, was a major influence on the intellectual reorientation of Oesterreicher due to the debates the two had.[21] After meeting several times at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, the group drafted for Bea a study document "Questions Concerning the Jews" (Questiones de Iudaeis), which was drafted properly as the "Decree on the Jews" (Decretum de Iudaeis), with Oesterreicher's pen being most prominent.[21] The document was completed in November 1961. External pressure on the Catholic Church to conform to the zeitgeist and make an explicit statement on Judaism was also heightened by a meeting in New Delhi in December 1961, where the World Council of Churches (a major ecumenical organisation controlled by Protestants) issued an explicit proclamation in which they stated "the historic events which led to the Crucifixion should not be so presented as to fasten upon the Jewish people of today responsibilities which belong to our corporate humanity."[22] The polemics intensified, as Egyptian media outlets such as Al Gomhuria claimed that Bea's ancestral name was "Behar" and that he was of Jewish ancestry. The actually confirmed Jewish ancestry of converts who were involved in writing the document under Cardinal Bea; Oesterreicher and Baum; was also highlighted as proof of a supposed "Zionist plot".

Seton Hall University, New Jersey in the United States, where Decretum de Iudaeis was drafted in 1961. Jewish convert and Vatican II periti, John M. Oesterreicher, founded the Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies here in 1953.

The initial drafting of Decretum de Iudaeis by the SECU was completed in November 1961. The actual text of the document was four paragraphs long.

Moses Maimonides).[24] In addition to this, a final, uncited paragraph in this version of the draft claimed that "Whoever despises or persecutes this people does injury to the Catholic Church."[23]

In June 1962, the World Jewish Congress, acting on its own initiative, appointed Dr. Chaim Wardi, an Israeli counsellor in the Israeli Ministry of Religious Affairs, as an "unofficial Jewish observer" at the council.[16] The Israeli Foreign Ministry under Golda Meir publicly endorsed this.[16] The issue became known as the "Wardi affair" and caused a political crisis for the Vatican under Roncalli, who had maintained that the document had no political implications and was about encouraging amicable religious relations.[25][9] Within five days of Wardi's "appointment", Cardinal Amleto Giovanni Cicognani as Secretary of the Central Preparatory Commission removed the Decretum de Iudaeis schema from the agenda (as Cardinal Secretary of State, he was particularly sensitive to diplomatic issues), never to be presented in this form to the council as a whole.[25] While the Jewish schema was off the agenda for the First Session of Vatican II, the issue was not put to rest, as liberals, starting with the actions of Cardinal Achille Liénart made a strong early showing to direct the general course of the council. The possibility of a Jewish document still loomed large for its opponents. In October 1962, with the opening of the council, a document entitled Il Complotto contro la Chiesa ("The Plot Against the Church") under the pseudonym of Maurice Pinay was anonymously distributed to all attending.[19][11] Allegedly funded by Egypt and elements in northern Italy, the specific authorship of the document has remained a mystery.[11] The document was originally authored in Spanish and is potentially a collaborative work of Mexican origin; some Italian sources have attributed the spread of the document at the Council in part to Fr. Joaquín Sáenz y Arriaga, a Mexican priest and former Jesuit. It warned vigilance to the Council members, with the 800-page polemic claiming that since the times of Christ, for 1900 years, Judaism had worked to overthrow Christianity and the Catholic Church, claiming involvement of the "Synagogue of Satan" in every major heresy, as well as encouraging "enemies" such as Freemasonry and Communism.[26]

Second Session of the Council, 1962–1963

Since his initial meetings with Bea in 1962, with many other meetings following, including significantly a meeting at the AJC's headquarters in New York on 31 March 1963; Rabbi

UN General Assembly, American Cardinals Richard Cushing and Francis Spellman and also Nelson Rockefeller as Governor of New York, amongst many others.[29] According to Lazare Landau, writing in the Tribune Juive, similar, but more discreet meetings took place in France between Fr. Yves Congar and the Jewish community at the Centre communautaire de le Paix in Strasbourg.[30]

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel dialogued closely with Cardinal Bea on the development of the document. He was selected by the American Jewish Committee to represent the position of Judaism.

The main aims of Heschel and the Jewish side had been to encourage the alteration of the Catholic presentation of Jewish responsibility in regards to the

Ecumenical Councils over numerous centuries.[11] Nevertheless, Cardinal Bea, with the blessing of Roncalli intended to press forward at the Second Session with these proposed changes. It had been decided that, after the setback of the Wardi affair, the schema, now entitled "On the Attitude of Catholics Toward Non-Christians and Especially Toward Jews" would be incorporated as a fourth chapter under a document "On Ecumenism"; this while a minor setback, was still satisfactory to its proposers because the drafting of that document also fell under the control of Bea's Secretariat.[11]

In 1963, a controversial play was released by the German writer

1963 Papal conclave in the middle of the council. Several years after the death of John XXIII, a fraudulent "Prayer for the Jews" was published in Commentary Magazine (associated with the AJC), starting an urban legend that Roncalli had intended it to be read out before his death but that it was stopped by the Church.[32] The author, one "F. E. Cartus", claimed that the prayer included the lines "We realize that the mark of Cain stands upon our foreheads. Across the centuries our brother Abel has lain in the blood we drew, or shed tears we caused by forgetting Your love" and "Forgive us the curse we falsely attached to their name as Jews. Forgive us for crucifying You a second time in the flesh."[32] According to John M. Oesterreicher, one of the periti who worked under Cardinal Bea, this "prayer" was a complete fabrication by Malachi Martin, a Jesuit priest who lived a double-life and used a wide number of pseudonyms.[32] Giovanni Montini (who took the name Paul VI) emerged from the 1963 conclave as a continuity John XXIII candidate for the council; the conservative elements in the Curia had backed Cardinal Ildebrando Antoniutti and the more radical liberal elements had proposed Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro, but settled on Montini on the suggestion of Cardinals Frings and Liénart. Montini confirmed that Cardinal Bea's mandate on addressing Judaism had been renewed.[16]

The Second Session of the council began in the Autumn of 1963 and by 8 November 1963 when "On Ecumenism", including its fourth chapter "On the Attitude of Catholics Toward Non-Christians and Especially Toward Jews" and fifth chapter "On Religious Liberty" was distributed to the Council Fathers, the liberals were confident, having gained in other areas of the Second Session.

Kingdom of Jordan) on 4 January 1964, whereby he would be meeting with Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople, with the ecumenical goal of mending the schism between Catholicism and Orthodoxy.[11] Members of the Curia thus argued that approving the controversial chapter on the Jews would jeopardize this effort and leave the 400,000 Orthodox Christians in the Arab world (including many Palestinian Christians) almost certain to oppose any sort of reunification with Rome. The first to third schemas should be put up to consideration and then at some later date (only two weeks of the Second Session remained) the fourth and fifth schemas should be looked at again.[11] The stalling tactic worked and when the Second Session closed without the issue being voted on, Moderator, Cardinal Gregorio Pietro Agagianian was non-committal on a future review of the chapters.[11]

Third Session of the Council, 1963–1964

Cardinal Cicognani's "middle path" revision

Arms of Arab Catholic leader Archbishop Maximos V Hakim of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, who reported to Paul VI, warning of alleged "de-Christianisation" under the Israeli government.

In the United States, where Western political power was centralised in the 1960s and most of the American Bishops represented at the council were staunch supporters of a pro-Jewish statement and a declaration on religious liberty—with the notable exception of Cardinal

Patrick O'Boyle[35] and Bishop Stephen Aloysius Leven;[36] they also had the support of the Catholic Media Association.[31] Some hope had been restored after six AJC members, headed up by Rose Sperry, had an audience with Paul VI in Rome and he personally agreed with the sentiment of Cardinal Spellman on the deicide issue.[31]

A new draft document was prepared between January and September 1964. Paul VI had given the SECU orders to make mention of

Secretariat for Non-Christians under Cardinal Paolo Marella, a conservative opponent of Bea.[31] And if the SECU refused to make changes, it would naturally go back to Cardinal Cicognani's Coordinating Committee (a Curialist, upholding the Pope's agenda). Eventually, Bea agreed to remove the term "deicide", but deferred to the Coordinating Committee on adding statements about other non-Christian religions. With the document now under the Coordinating Committee, some restructuring took place: discreetly avoiding letting the American Cardinals know the details, especially. The new version highlighted, like the very first draft, Christianity as heirs of the Prophets, Patriarchs and covenant of the Old Testament, it expressed hope that the Jews will eventually convert to the Catholic Church (and thus Catholic sermons and catechesis, should avoid denigrating Jews). It also stated that the Church, "just as it severely disapproves of any wrong inflicted upon human beings everywhere, it also deplores and condemns hatred and maltreatment of Jews."[31]

A report was “leaked” to

Auschwitz any time, if faced with the alternative of conversion or death."[29]

Cardinal Amleto Giovanni Cicognani's "middle path" re-drafted version of September 1964, favoured by Paul VI, alienated both sides in the debate.

Paul VI made his position known on the general direction of the council, with his August 1964 encyclical

Maximos IV Saigh and Bishop Joseph Tawil of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church and Archbishop Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir of the Maronite Church. Their view can be summed up by Archbishop Sfeir's statement that "We must not glorify Jews by such a declaration, we would only arouse Arab animosity and difficulties for bishops living in Arab lands."[31]

The combined liberalising factions; headed up by the Rhineland Alliance and the American Cardinals; held different approaches, with ultimately the same goal in mind. One group, consisting of Cardinals Joseph Ritter of St. Louis, Albert Gregory Meyer of Chicago,

universal salvation and dual-covenant theology respectively.[31] Cardinal John Heenan, the English Archbishop of Westminster, also spoke in favour of the liberal faction on the issue at a press conference the following day. On the deicide question, he admitted that “Jesus Christ was condemned to death by the Sanhedrin,” but "the Jewish people as such cannot be held guilty for the death of Christ." He affirmed to "do all [he] could to satisfy the desires of [his] Jewish friends."[31]
The document was sent back to the SECU for amendments on 29 September 1964 with over 70 suggestions.

Cardinal Felici's letters, return to the SECU

The political backlash was immediate:

Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, at the insistence of the Egyptian government.[31] The political implications of the document was discussed privately at the Cairo Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement in October 1964 between Syrian, Lebanese and Egyptian delegates. It was agreed that they would not make a public statement on the issue at the Conference but that Sukarno, President of Indonesia, would discuss it with Paul VI during his visit on 12 October 1964. At this meeting, Sukarno warned that all Vatican diplomatic missions in Arab countries might be closed if the document was adopted. At the same time that Sukarno was visiting Rome, a Palestinian delegation lodged a complaint with the Vatican about the document, seeing it as favouring Zionism by proxy, despite the assurances of the Vatican that it was not political in nature.[31]

Cardinal Josef Frings organised a letter of protest against elements within the Roman Curia who wanted to cancel the document during the Third Session.

In the middle of this crisis, two letters had been received by Bea from Cardinal

Doctrinal Commission.[44] Cardinal Felici's two letters were "leaked" by Malachi Martin and became features in publications such as The New York Times.[44][45]

The liberals, drawn from the Rhineland Alliance and the American Cardinals, arranged a memorandum to be issued to the Pope to protest this in the strongest terms. A gathering took place at the residence of Cardinal Josef Frings of Cologne, where a number of other Cardinals added their voice to the petition. Supporters of the Frings motion explicitly named by the media included longtime interested parties Cardinals Ritter, Meyer, König, Liénart and Lercaro, along with Cardinals Raúl Silva Henríquez of Chile, Julius Döpfner of Munich, Joseph-Charles Lefèbvre of Bourges, Bernardus Johannes Alfrink of Utrecht and Leo Joseph Suenens of Brussels.[45][46] This was highly significant as it included three out of four Moderators of the Second Vatical Council (only the Eastern Catholic Moderator, Cardinal Gregorio Pietro Agagianian, did not sign up to it). They wanted the return of the Jewish document and the document on religious liberty to the SECU, they wanted to complain that the conservative minority were already able to "water down" some of the more radical elements in documents that had already been voted on and they were opposed to delaying the Council any further (rumours had abounded that Paul VI wanted to delay the council as it stood for three years, so the subjects covered could mature for a Fourth Session). With this memorandum in hand, the leader of the faction, Cardinal Frings held a meeting with Paul VI on 13 November 1964 to express the concerns of the liberal Council fathers.[31] Frings demanded that the Pope not intervene unilaterally (invoking the recent victories for Collegiality) and to follow the procedural rules established by the council. Paul VI intimated that he would take into consideration concerns, but also wanted to go more slowly, holding that radical steps would confuse and alienate the Catholic faithful in places like Italy, Spain and Latin America.[31]

Not just on this question, but in general, the Third Session of the Second Vatican Council had been a disaster for the conservative faction in the lead up to the presentation of the Jewish document in September 1964.

conscientious objection, disarmament, etc., no longer completely off the table. Thus, the conservative minority were fighting a rear-guard action on numerous fronts.[31] At a meeting held on the same day as Frings’ audience with Paul VI, the conservative grouping the Coetus Internationalis Patrum under the Presidency of Archbishop Geraldo de Proença Sigaud met with Cardinal Ruffini in attendance to discuss what they should do next. They were confidence that Paul VI would never allow a stand-alone Jewish document due to the mounting Arab political pressure and decided, contrary to what Cardinal Felici had laid out, they would work against the Jewish issue being covered in Schema 13 (this document, On the Church in the Modern World, was going to pass, just its final composition was still in play and if the Jewish issue was under it then it could slip through). This would prove to be a tactical blunder.[31]

Black Thursday, Council fathers vote

Following these discussions, the SECU under Bea prepared a new draft very favourable to the position of the liberals. The document stripped out all mention of conversion of Jews and condemning accusations of "deicide" was back. This, despite carrying a more ambiguous title, with Jews no longer explicitly highlighted, with the Declaration on the Church's Relationship to Non-Christian Religions.

Republic of India, as a sympathetic comment on Hinduism was also included, alongside generic statements against "discrimination." When the document came to Cardinal Ottaviani's Theological Commission for examination, the Commission refused to incorporate it into Schema 13 and without proposing alterations to the text, simply returned it to the SECU. Then it went back to Cardinal Cicognani's Coordinating Committee (who, technically could not alter the text).[31] The Egyptian Ministry of Guidance had got wind of the new draft through conservative allies in Rome and was preparing a memorandum from Christian leaders in the Arab world against it on 28 October 1964. Cicognani, who wanted to delay the document, wanted Egypt's memorandum to be brought to Paul VI's attention first. The memorandum asked why Rome would side with "10 million Jews over 100 million Arabs" and brought up the issue of Jewish deicide. On the other side, the American Cardinals (except McIntyre) and the Moderators of the council (from the Rhineland Alliance) were equally turning up the diplomatic pressure.[31]

The pressure of the American Cardinals (including the on their side the

American media) and support from the most of the Council Fathers, as well as the increasingly blunt approach of the Egyptians had made it difficult for the Pope to do anything but order the printing of the new version of the document. Cicognani delayed for eight days as the end of the Third Session was approaching and proposed a maneuver, wherein the three "natural" parts of the document would be voted on individually; Hinduism and Buddhism as the first, Islam as the second and then the more controversial and keenly contested section on Judaism as third.[11] It was decided that the showdown on two of the most fought over documents would take place successively; the document On Religious Liberty would be released on 17 November 1964 with a vote on 19 November, while Relations with Non-Christians would be released on 18 November 1964 with a vote promised for 20 November.[11]

A photograph of the Second Vatican Council in Session. A vote on the document Relations with Non-Christians finally took place in November 1964 and was passed with the support of around 89% of the present Council Fathers.

The main battle was seen as the document On Religious Liberty and Relations with Non-Christians was closely connected to it but flowed downstream from it. The liberal and conservative factions were much the same with both documents and indeed the American theologian John Courtney Murray, keenly supported by most of the American Cardinals, had provided the underpinning principles of the text On Religious Liberty. The fiercely contested nature of the documents came to a head in what is known as Black Thursday or the "day of the bomb" (la bomba oggi).[11] On the Thursday, when Cardinal Eugène Tisserant arose to announce that no vote would be taking place on that document due to 250 to 300 wishing for it to be delayed, uproar broke out on the floor of the Third Session. Cardinals Meyer and Ritter argued openly with Cardinals Siri and Ruffini at the table of the Council Presidents and the American Bishop Francis Frederick Reh, Rector of the Pontifical North American College, took up a paper and began a petition among the angry Bishops, which garnered 1,500 supporters. The Americans—Cardinals Ritter, Meyer and Leger—stormed off to confront the Pope. Paul VI was watching the proceedings on close circuit television and had Cardinal Felici called to restore order to the proceedings. Bishop Émile-Joseph De Smedt, a prominent liberal clergymen and talented orator, took to the podium and explained in a matter of a fact manner how, why and who was responsible for delaying the vote on the document, to applause.[11]

The Pope, having decided on a course of action that the vote on the document On Religious Liberty would be suspended until a Fourth Session, could not backdown lest he undermine his own authority.[11] And so the Third Session entered its finally voting day deeply divided, with the liberal faction deeply frustrated and political, diplomatic and media hostility from states on both sides of the Cold War conflict; East and West; hostile to the idea of the confessional state, aimed at the Holy See. Attempts to introduce a relaxed atmosphere and mollify the Bishops with the announcement that those in attendance would be given a gold medal and that new powers would be conferred upon the General Superiors changed little.[11] Even the most ardent member of the Roman Curia opposed to a document on Judaism, Cardinal Ruffini, at this point relented with international hostility aimed at the Holy See over the issue of religious liberty, admitting that a vote go ahead on Cardinal Bea's Relations with Non-Christians, with the fight over the "bigger fish" On Religious Liberty successfully delayed for another day. There would be no split vote on different religions, all of the parts of the document would be voted on as a single entity. An overwhelming majority of the Council Fathers, 89%, voted in favour of the document, making Relations with Non-Christians an official document of the Second Vatican Council at the close of the Third Session. The document itself had not yet been promulgated by the Pope, so there was possibility for alteration to the text, but it could not now be removed from the council.[11]

Fourth Session of the Council, 1964–1965

While leaders of the Jewish community in the United States had been elated by the ending of the Third Session, the exact nature of the text was not set in stone and there was still room to "nuance" or "qualify" the final text within Council rules. Between the closure of the Third Session on 21 November 1964 and the opening of the Fourth Session on 14 September 1965, a couple of controversies pertaining to the issue arose. Firstly, Luigi Maria Carli, the Bishop of Segni (a historically important diocese close to Rome) and member of the Coetus Internationalis Patrum wrote an article entitled, La questione giudaica davanti al Concilio Vaticano II in his diocesan magazine in February 1965 that affirmed the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church on the matter: namely, that adherents of Rabbinic Judaism at the time of Christ and to the present day, bore guilt for the trial and crucifixion of Christ[31] and that "judgment of condemnation by God" hung over Judaism. The President of the American Jewish Committee bewailed the article as an "anti-Semitic attack."[47][48] A few weeks later on Passion Sunday, Paul VI himself, within the sermon during Mass in Rome, spoke of the role played by Jews of the time in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ (to the disappointment of Elio Toaff, the Chief Rabbi of Rome).[31]

Cardinal Bea met with Morris B. Abram, President of the American Jewish Committee and attempted to reassure him in regard to the status of the document and contemporary controversies.

Most significant of all was the reporting in the New York Times by their Rome-correspondent Robert C. Dotty, that Paul VI had turned the document over to four doctrinal "consultants", to make it not contradict Sacred Scripture and to mollify Arab opinion. Cardinal Bea was visiting New York that week and denied these claims, stating that it was still under the SECU and he sought to clear up any misunderstandings with

Vatican Press Office made statements saying that the declaration remained unchanged. In the New York Times, Dotty was publishing articles with dubious claims that the document was "under study" (when it had already been completed) and that the document may be dropped completely. These and other similar articles led to criticisms of the Church from Willem Visser 't Hooft, the Protestant head of the World Council of Churches who warned that if the Jewish issue was removed there would be consequences for ecumenism. The AJC similarly, through the person of Rabbi Tanenbaum, confronted Msgr George G. Higgins, who passed on the concerns to Cardinal Cushing. The Deutscher Koordinierungsrat der Gesellschaften für Christlich-Jüdische Zusammenarbeit also sent a letter to Rome complaining that there was now a "crisis of confidence vis-à-vis the Catholic Church.”[31]

The earlier "tactical leaks" strategy involving Malachi Martin, the AJC's mole who fed the New York Times and TIME, to push the document in a direction desired by the American Jewish community was no longer effectual: Martin had been released from his priestly vows to the Jesuits in May–June 1965. The final form of the document had been released to the public, revealing that the Jewish elements had been watered down.[31] A number of significant events took place that year, which garnered media attention: in October 1965, Paul VI became the first Pope to address the United Nations calling for “No more war, war never again.” While visiting the United States, at a Mass attended by 40,000 people at the Yankee Stadium in New York City (with millions more watching on television), Paul VI quoted John 20:19 from the Gospel of John which states "the disciples were bolted for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood before them and said "Peace be to you!"." While intended as a friendly message in "the world's most Jewish city", there were widespread misunderstandings and many Jews and liberal Catholics criticised the sermon as "unthinking" and linked this to the development of the document on the Jews.[31][49] With the final vote approaching on 14 October 1965, both Jewish and Arab lobbies doubled-down and pushed for their agendas: Shuster of the AJC wanted the "weakening" of the document completely reversed, while a final 28-page Arab request was submitted, urging the Catholic Bishops to save the faith from “communism and atheism and the Jewish-Communist alliance."[31]

While the form of the final document to be put to the floor at the Fourth Session of the Second Vatican Council had been disappointing to Shuster and Lichten of the AJC and B’nai B’rith respectively, Higgins convinced them that it was better to "settle for what they could get."[31] Bishop Stephen Aloysius Leven gave some false hope to his friends in the American Jewish community that the American bishops could still vote against the new version but upon realising that this would simply add votes to the Arab & conservative side who wanted no document at all, the tactic was abandoned. By this point, even Cardinal Bea was content for the "deicide" issue to be dropped so long as the document was finally promulgated. Fr. René Laurentin, also wrote a late plea to strengthen the Jewish aspect of the document, but by now momentum was against further revisions. In its final form, 1,763 voted in favour of the document and 250 bishops opposed it. It was subsequently promulgated on 28 October 1965 by Pope Paul VI as Nostra aetate ("In our time").[31] The media in the United States and Europe subsequently ran with sensationalistic headlines such as "Vatican Pardons Jews" and "Jews Exonerated in Rome", despite the fact that the deicide issue had now been removed from the document.[31] Meanwhile, diplomatic statements were prepared by the AJC and B'nai B'rith, which tried to focus on what they saw as the positives while also airing their disappointment that some of the biggest issues had been dropped and the document much watered down from previous versions. The most vocal critic was Rabbi Heschel, who described avoiding dealing with the deicide issue as “an act of paying homage to Satan.”[31]

Summary

Main articles: Catholic Church and Judaism and Catholic Church and Islam

The document begins by stating:[3]

In our time, when day by day mankind is being drawn closer together, and the ties between different peoples are becoming stronger, the Church examines more closely her relationship to non-Christian religions. In her task of promoting unity and love among men, indeed among nations, she considers above all in this declaration what men have in common and what draws them to fellowship.

The key observation about other faiths reads: "The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings, which though different in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of truth which enlightens all men."[50]

Nostra aetate examined, among other belief systems, Hinduism and Buddhism, and stated that the Church "rejects nothing that is true and holy" in other religions.[51]

Religious freedom became a new part of Catholic teaching with Vatican II and this declaration. Nostra aetate declared that there are positive elements in other religions and religious stereotypes and prejudices can be overcome through interreligious dialogue. Pope Francis said, "From indifference and opposition, we've turned to cooperation and goodwill. From enemies and strangers, we've become friends and brothers."[52]

The final paragraph calls on Catholics to enter into "dialogue and collaboration" with those of other faiths.[53]

It describes the eternal questions which have dogged men since the beginning, and how the various religious traditions have tried to answer them.

It mentions some of the answers that some

Buddhists,[1][54]
and members of other faiths have suggested for such philosophical questions. It notes the willingness of the Catholic Church to accept some truths present in other religions in so much as they reflect Catholic teaching and may lead souls to Christ.

Part three goes on to say that the

Catholics and Muslims to forget the hostilities and differences of the past and to work together for mutual understanding and benefit. Some of these themes are repeated in chapter two of Lumen gentium
.

Part four of the text deals with Jews. Repeated in the text is the traditional teaching that the Catholic Church sees the beginnings of its Faith in the Patriarchs and Prophets of ancient Israel. It also notes that the Apostles and many of the early Disciples of Jesus Christ at the founding of the Catholic Church had their roots in the Jews of that time, despite the fact that "Jerusalem did not recognize the time of her visitation, nor did the Jews in large number, accept the Gospel; indeed not a few opposed its spreading." The most significant departure in the document from previous approaches was that "this sacred synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies as well as of fraternal dialogues." This paved the way for Catholic-Jewish interfaith dialogue in the decades following on from the Second Vatican Council in a manner which was not commonplace before.

The final text of Nostra aetate, as promulgated in 1965, in regards to the question of

crucifixion of Jesus Christ) did not include the word "deicide" specifically, as it had in some previously proposed versions.[31] On this issue, the document says "what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today." The exclusion of the specific term "deicide" and the textual ambiguity resulting from the fierce debates at the council is such that the text has been interpreted in different ways, the "cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction" allows conservatives to present that the Jews who had become Christians, then and since, were not culpable, while others present it as exonerating the Jews of deicide as a whole.[55] At the time of its promulgation, liberal elements within the SECU and American Jewish organisations saw the final version of the text as a defeat for their position on this issue.[31]

On the question of antisemitism, the document says that the Church "decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone."[52] Earlier versions of the text said that it "condemns" it, but this was removed from the final version.[31]

The fifth part states that all men are created in God's image, and that the "Church reproves, as foreign to the mind of Christ, any discrimination against men or harassment of them because of their race, color, condition of life, or religion."

Opposition

Nostra aetate, along with the adjacent documents,

religious indifferentism, that is to say that they dissuade the conversion of non-Catholics (contrary to the Catholic doctrine of Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus and thus, within this context, exclude them from the possibility of attaining eternal salvation), that they also discourage or confuse those who are already Catholic by suggesting that other religions may have validity and that there is a radical discontinuity with what the Catholic Church has already proclaimed Magisterially about non-Christian religions.[56]

The statement "They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all-powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth", has been accused by the

dar al-harb ("house of war").[57]

Post-Conciliar developments

To flesh out these implications and ramifications, the Vatican's

Commission for Interreligious Relations with the Jews issued its Guidelines and Suggestions for Implementing the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate in late 1974.[58] The Commission later released Notes on the Correct Way to Present Jews and Judaism in the Teaching and Catechesis of the Roman Catholic Church in 1985.[59]

The

U.S. Congress passed a resolution acknowledging Nostra aetate' fortieth anniversary.[60]

The Vatican's Commission for Religious Relations with Jews released a new document exploring the unresolved theological questions at the heart of Christian–Jewish dialogue. Entitled The Gifts and Calling of God are Irrevocable, it marked the 50th anniversary of the ground-breaking declaration Nostra Aetate.[61]

On the fiftieth anniversary of the document's release, Sayyid Syeed, the national director of the Islamic Society of North America's Office for Interfaith and Community Alliances, pointed out that Nostra Aetate was released during the 1960s civil rights movement in the United States, at a time when Islamic centers and student groups were being founded on university campuses, and from these humble beginnings the "Catholic church acted as a big brother" in its understanding of a religious minority, a sentiment that has continued since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 when the Church opened its doors to them amidst growing Islamophobia.[62]

See also

Drafters

Notes

  1. Ludovico Maracci
    (1698).

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Pope Paul VI (28 October 1965). "Declaration on the relation of the church to non-christian religions — Nostra aetate". Holy See. Retrieved 25 December 2008. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ^ Elgenaidi, Maha (11 September 2015). "Muslims and Nostra Aetate: Fifty Years of Rapprochement". Islamic Networks Group. p. English. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  3. ^ a b Nienhaus, Cyndi (2013). ERIC EJ1016112: Nostra Aetate and the Religious Literacy of Catholic Students. pp. 67, 73.
  4. ^ Melloni, Alberto. (2015). The “Nostra Aetate” Generation. Amicizia ebraico-cristiana di Roma
  5. ^ Connolly, John. (2012). Converts Who Changed the Church. The Forward
  6. ^ P. Madigan, Nostra aetate and fifty years of interfaith dialogue – changes and challenges, Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society 36 (2015) Archived 15 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine, 179-191.
  7. ^ "Vatican II & the Jews". January 1965.
  8. ^ Markoe, Lauren (10 December 2015). "The 'Splainer: What is 'Nostra Aetate,' and what does it have to do …". Religious News Service. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
  9. ^ a b c d SJ. (2015). Nostra Aetate – the moral heart of the Second Vatican Council. Jesuits in Britain
  10. ^ WJC. (2020). June 13, 1960: A turning point in Catholic-Jewish relations. World Jewish Congress
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab Commentary Bk. (1965). Vatican II & the Jews. Commentary Magazine
  12. ^ Poncins 1967, pp. 11
  13. ^ Poncins 1967, pp. 53
  14. ^ Poncins1967, pp. 60
  15. ^ Poncins 1967, pp. 96
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Stransky, Thomas (2005). The Genesis of Nostra Aetate. America.
  17. ^ a b c AJC. (1961). "Anti-Jewish Elements in Catholic Liturgy". American Jewish Committee
  18. ^ a b Notre Dame de Sion, (2015). Celebrating 50 Years of Vatican II. Sion News.
  19. ^ a b Rosen, David (2017). "In Our Time: AJC and Nostra Aetate: A Reflection After 50 Years. American Jewish Committee.
  20. ^ AJC (1961). "The Image of the Jew in Catholic Teaching". American Jewish Committee.
  21. ^ a b c Rush 2019, pp. 435
  22. ^ Rush 2019, pp. 430
  23. ^ a b "Nostra Aetate Drafts". Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations. November 1961. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
  24. ^ a b c Connelly, J. (2014). Eschatology and the Ideology of Anti-Judaism. Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations, 9(1)
  25. ^ a b O'Malley 2010, pp. 210
  26. ^ Pinay, Maurice. (1962). The Plot Against the Church. Anonymous.
  27. ^ a b Marans, Rabbi Noam E. (2011). Challenges facing the Vatican's Jewish point man. JTA.
  28. ^ Heschel, Abraham Joshua, (1963). On Improving Catholic-Jewish Relations. AJC.
  29. ^ a b c d e f Spruch, Gary (2017). Wide Horizons: Abraham Joshua Heschel, AJC, and the Spirit of Nostra Aetate. AJC.
  30. ^ Catholic Family News, (2012). The Vatican-Synagogue Agreement. John Vennari.
  31. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw Roddy, Joseph (1966). "How the Jews Changed Catholic Thinking". Look magazine.
  32. ^ a b c Oesterreicher 1986, pp. 155
  33. ^ Oesterreicher 1986, p. 197
  34. ^ Oesterreicher 1986, pp. 197–98
  35. ^ Oesterreicher 1986, pp. 199–201
  36. ^ Oesterreicher 1986, pp. 198–99
  37. ^ a b Kaplan 2008, pp. 243
  38. ^ a b Kaplan 2008, pp. 254
  39. ^ Serafian 1964, pp. 49
  40. ^ a b Paul VI. (August 6, 1964). Ecclesiam suam, Encyclical of Pope Paul VI on the Church. Vatican.va
  41. ^ Gilbert 1968, pp. 151
  42. ^ Foundation for the Study of Plural Societies 1975, pp. 58
  43. ^ National Catholic Welfare Conference 1965, pp. 69
  44. ^ a b c d e f DNY. (2012). Remembering the Second Vatican Council: Second Intersession, December 1963 to September 1964. Dignity NY
  45. ^ a b NYT. (October 13, 1964). GROUP AT COUNCIL URGES POPE BACK SCHEMA ON JEWS; Cardinals Ask Him to Resist Conservative Pressure for Modified Statement; HE IS EXPECTED TO ACT; Religious Liberty Also Issue as Progressives Move to Bolster Majority View, December 1963 to September 1964. New York Times
  46. ^ See Oestereicher, pp. 195ff.
  47. ^ NYT. (April 21, 1965). ANTI-SEMITIC VIEW LAID TO BISHOP CARLI. New York Times
  48. ^ Hershcopf, Judith. "The Church and the Jews: The Struggle at Vatican Council II" The American Jewish Year Book, American Jewish Committee, Vol. 67 (1966), pp. 45-77. JSTOR.
  49. ^ McCabe, Bernard. "American Jews and Vatican II" New Blackfriars , Wiley , Vol. 47, No. 549 (February 1966), pp. 229-237. JSTOR.
  50. ^ Sadowski, Dennis (13 October 2015). "In 50 years since 'Nostra Aetate,' church has built strong interreligious ties". Catholic News Service. Archived from the original on 26 June 2016. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
  51. ^ Clooney, Francis X. "Nostra Aetate and the Catholic Way of Openness to Other Religions." Nostra Aetate, edited by Pim Valkenberg and Anthony Cirelli, Catholic University of America Press, Washington, D.C., 2016, pp. 58–75. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1g69zbs.11.
  52. ^ a b Poggioli, Sylvia (1 November 2015). "'Nostra Aetate' Opened Up Catholic, Jewish Relations 50 Years Ago". National Public Radio. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
  53. ^ Fredericks, James L. "Nostra Aetate and Pope Francis: Reflections on the Next Fifty Years of Catholic Dialogue with Buddhists." Nostra Aetate, edited by Pim Valkenberg and Anthony Cirelli, Catholic University of America Press, Washington, D.C., 2016, pp. 43–57. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1g69zbs.10.
  54. ^ "Nostra aetate". www.vatican.va. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  55. ^ Fiedler, Maureen (26 October 2015). "Nostra Aetate proves that change is possible".
  56. ^ Nichols, Fr. Aidan. (9 July 2010). Nostra aetate: a break with tradition? Catholic Herald.
  57. ^ a b "The Errors of Vatican II". www.sspxasia.com. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  58. ^ "Guidelines and Suggestions for Implementing the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate". www.vatican.va. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  59. ^ "NOTES ON THE CORRECT WAY TO PRESENT THE JEWS AND JUDAISM IN PREACHING AND CATECHESIS IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH". www.christianunity.va. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  60. ^ US House Concurrent Resolution 260 Recognizing the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, Nostra aetate, and the continuing need for mutual interreligious respect and dialogue.
  61. Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with Jews (10 December 2015). "The Gifts and Calling of God are irrevocable". Holy See. Archived from the original on 13 November 2017. Retrieved 29 December 2015. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help
    )
  62. ^ Zimmermann, Carol (21 May 2015). "Muslim leader praises 50-year-old church document on religious dialogue". National Catholic Reporter. Retrieved 23 February 2019.

Bibliography

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nostra_aetate&oldid=1215935108"