‘Nostra Aetate’, a document that revolutionized Catholic-Jewish relations, turns 60

A landmark Catholic document, credited with igniting a revolution in Catholic-Jewish relations over the decades, has turned 60.

“Nostra Aetate” (“In Our Time”) was promulgated Oct. 28, 1965, by Pope St. Paul VI as part of the Second Vatican Council.

The text was the Catholic Church’s first formal denunciation of “hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone,” while affirming the “spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews.”

That language marked a seismic shift from centuries of what French historian Jules Isaac had called a “teaching of contempt” toward the Jewish community by Catholic and other Christian theologians.

In 1947, Isaac, a renowned Jewish academic whose wife and daughter were murdered at the Auschwitz Nazi death camp in Poland, published “Jésus et Israël,” the first full analysis of Christian anti-Judaism. Later that year, Isaac also helped to develop the International Council of Christians and Jews’ “Ten Points of Seelisburg,” which stressed Christianity’s need to recover a historically and theologically accurate understanding of Judaism.

Scholars have documented a brief but pivotal June 13, 1960, meeting between Isaac and Pope St. John XXIII as the major catalyst behind “Nostra Aetate.” Soon after, the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity — led by Jesuit Cardinal Augustin Bea — was specifically tasked with addressing Catholic-Jewish relations, a project that ultimately led to Vatican II’s “Nostra Aetate.”

Pope Leo XIV referenced “Nostra Aetate,” which set forth the Catholic Church’s relation to non-Christian religions, in an Oct. 28 interfaith prayer service closing the “International Meeting for Peace: Religions and Cultures in Dialogue” in Rome.

Stressing the need for dialogue and friendship, Pope Leo noted the gathering took place on the 60th anniversary of “Nostra Aetate,” and referenced the text directly, saying, “We cannot truly pray to God as Father of all if we treat any people as other than sisters and brothers, for all are created in God’s image.”

The same day, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue and the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews organized an event called “Walking Together in Hope” at the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall to celebrate the document’s 60th anniversary and reaffirm calls for peace and dialogue. Among those attending the event were religious leaders from various faiths, scholars, members of the Roman Curia (the Vatican’s administration), diplomats accredited to the Holy See, and advocates for interreligious dialogue.

Pope Leo, who addressed the attendees and led a silent prayer for peace, was also scheduled to dedicate his Oct. 29 general audience to “Nostra Aetate” and interreligious dialogue.

In December 2024, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the American Jewish Committee jointly released “Translate Hate: The Catholic Edition,” a resource that confronts antisemitism by cataloging anti-Jewish slurs, while providing Catholic teaching that counters such hatred.

The 61-page glossary of antisemitic terms and commentary, available in pdf format on the AJC’s website, builds on the AJC’s “Translate Hate” initiative, which was first released in 2019.

The document uses the working definition of antisemitism adopted in 2016 by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, or IHRA. That summation states that “antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

On Oct. 6, the Anti-Defamation League published a report finding that more than half (55%) of Jewish Americans reported experiencing some form of antisemitism during the previous year, with 79% of survey respondents expressing concern about antisemitism.

Almost one in five (18%) were the victim of an assault, or experienced a threat of physical attack or actual verbal harassment due to their Jewish identity in the past year. More than one third (36%) witnessed actual or threatened violence.

Speaking to OSV News several months ahead of the “Nostra Aetate” anniversary, AJC director of interreligious affairs Rabbi Noam Marans– who in September delivered a keynote at Georgetown University celebrating the occasion —said the document had jumpstarted “a process in which Catholic teaching about Jews and Judaism would be transformed from enmity to amity.”

Released just two decades after the end of the Holocaust (which is called “the Shoah” in the Hebrew) “Nostra Aetate” clearly stated “Jews are not collectively responsible for the death of Jesus,” and “are not to be portrayed as accursed,” said Rabbi Marans.

In addition, he noted, the text introduced “new ideas about the eternity of God’s covenant with the Jewish people,” while locating “the roots of Christianity … in Judaism.”

Rabbi Marans said “Nostra Aetate” is not the end of the church’s transformative relationship with the Jewish people, but “the beginning of an evolution that is ongoing.”

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