Nostra Aetate

Pope Pius XII remained Pope until his death in 1958, thirteen years after the liberation of the last Nazi concentration camp.  When Pope Pius XII died, Cardinal Angelo Roncalli was elected as the next Pope and took the name of Pope John XXIII.  Cardinal Roncalli had been outspoken against the Nazi regime and had unsuccessfully attempted to pressure Pope Pius XII into issuing an anti-Nazi proclamation.

On his first Good Friday as Pope,  John XXIII changed the Holy Week prayer for “the conversion of the Jews” by dropping the words “perfidious (treacherous) Jews” from the prayer.  The words of the prayer were changed to “those to whom God spoke first” and “the first hearers of the word of God”.  The prayer was later renamed “For the Jews” and the words “conversion of” were dropped.

In 1962, Pope John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council and mandated that one of the things it would do was address the relationship between Catholic Christianity and Judaism.  The Second Vatican Council marked a tremendous turning point in Catholic/Jewish relations, beginning a process of reconciliation, dialogue, and cooperation.

Pope John XXIII died in 1964, before the Second Vatican Council had completed its work.  His successor, Pope Paul VI, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem that year and the Catholic leaders lit six candles at Israel’s Yad Vashem Memorial in memory of the Jews who perished in the Holocaust.  Pope Paul VI then completed the writing of Nostra Aetate, Latin for “In Our Times”, a document that defined a reassessment of the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and non-Christian religions.  A special section of Nostra Aetate was devoted to Jews and Judaism.

Nostra Aetate itself contains four significant affirmations:

It rejects the false belief that Jews are to be held responsible for the death of Jesus:  “…what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today…”

It affirms that the Covenant made by God with the Jewish people has never been broken and that the ongoing vitality of the Jewish religion is part of God’s plan:  “…although the church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as repudiated or cursed by God, as if such views followed from the Holy Scriptures…”

It rejects prejudice, hatred, oppression, and persecution of Jews: “…the church rejects every persecution against any person… and decries hatreds, persecutions, and manifestations of anti-Semitism directed against Jews at any time and by anyone…”

It promotes dialogue between Catholics and Jews in a spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood:  “Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is so great, this sacred Synod wishes to foster and recommend that mutual.understanding and respect, which is the fruit above all of biblical and theological studies, and of brotherly dialogues…”

After the Second Vatican Council closed, Pope Paul VI created the Vatican’s Commission on Relations with the Jews.  In 1975, this Commission issued a document entitled Guidelines and Suggestions for Implementing the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate.  These guidelines developed the affirmations of Nostra Aetate into a defined policy statement and action plan.  Some its highlights include:

Placing Nostra Aetate into the context of the Holocaust:  “…the step taken by the Council finds its historic setting in circumstances deeply affected by the memory of the persecution and massacre of Jews that took place in Europe just before and during the Second World War…”

Preaching and education should emphasize the Jewishness of Jesus:  “…Jesus was and always will remain a Jew…”

Dialogue between Catholics and Jews should be based on an absence of prejudice, an absence of conversionary intent, mutual respect, and in the final outcome a true spirit of genuine trust.

Subsequent to this, Roman Catholic leadership affirmed its commitment to these principles.  The National Conference of Catholic Bishops in the United States established a special office for Catholic/Jewish relations and issued several statements.  In interpreting Nostra Aetate, the American bishops emphasize that Christians should not seek to convert Jews but should commit themselves to dialogue, prayer, and cooperation with Jews.  Catholic education should emphasize “…the common historical, biblical, doctrinal, and liturgical heritage shared by Catholics and Jews as well as their differences.  This involves not only appreciation of the Hebrew Scriptures as a source of faith with their own perpetual value, but also a recognition of Judaism as a living tradition that has had a strong and creative religious life through the centuries since the birth of Christianity from the common root…”  The bishops also call for “… a frank and honest treatment of the history of Christian anti-Semitism which climaxed in so much persecution, and of the Nazi attempt to destroy the Jewish population of Europe…”

Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, who was the Archbishop of Chicago from 1982 until his death in 1996 said, “…There is little doubt that classical Christian presentations of Jews and Judaism were a central factor in generating popular support for the Nazi endeavor, along with economic greed, religious and political nationalism, and ordinary human fear.  For many baptized Christians, traditional Christian beliefs about Jews and Judaism constituted the primary motivation for their support, active or tacit, of the Nazi movement.  Some even went so far as to define the Nazi struggle against the Jews in explicitly religious and theological terms.  In the Church today, we must not minimize the extent of Christian collaboration with Hitler and his associates…”

The late Pope John-Paul II carried all of the principles of Nostra Aetate forward into his papacy and made several significant gestures of reconciliation with the Jewish community.  His writings and speeches exhibit a number of themes:

An emphasis on the spiritual bond that links Christians with the Jewish people as “people of God”

A re-affirmation that God’s covenant with the people of Israel never ended and that Jews remain Gods’ chosen people in the fullest sense

A statement outlining the fact that Christianity and Judaism developed different understandings of relating to God, especially after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 A.D. but that both were branches of the same biblical tradition

An affirmation that Catholics are called to study the history of Jewish/Christian relations and that preaches and teachers are to present Jews and Judaism free of any kind of prejudice

A statement that anti-Semitism is sinful

A call to all Roman Catholics to learn from the history and lessons of the Holocaust

A suggestion that Jews and Christians  get to know each other better and talk to each other about their beliefs, practices, and spirituality

An affirmation that Christians and Jews work together to build up the reign of God on earth and that they join with all other peoples in establishing peace and justice.

Pope John-Paul II was the first Pope in history to visit a synagogue.  Under his leadership, the Vatican officially recognized the State of Israel and during his visit to Israel, the Pope prayed at the Western Wall.  As a sign of respect for the Jewish custom of placing prayers within the stones of the wall, the Pope inserted the following prayer, a copy of which is on display at Yad Vashem in Israel:  

“God of our fathers, you chose Abraham and his descendants to bring your Name to the nations.  We are deeply saddened by the behavior of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer, and asking your forgiveness, we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant.”