Sixty years after the publication of Nostra aetate, the Church and the Jewish community continue to ask themselves the same question: can humanity truly live together? During the international conference "After Nostra aetate (1965–2025). Evaluation and Dreams" at the Higher Theological Seminary in Łódź, participants were called upon to reflect on religious coexistence, spiritual transformation, and action.
Call for conversion
The Second Vatican Council document Nostra aetate (Eng. “In our time”) of September 28, 1965, forever changed the Church's relationship with non-Christian religions. For the first time, it explicitly condemned anti-Semitism, rejected the collective responsibility of Jews for the death of Christ, and called for mutual understanding, respect, and cooperation.
Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś, opening the conference, recalled that Nostra aetate is not a historical document, but a still relevant call for the spiritual conversion of the Church. As he explained, it is about “conversion from violence and contempt to dialogue and joint building.”
“Where faith resorts to violence, faith ends and idolatry begins—when we talk about the great work of Nostra aetate, we are really talking about conversion from idolatry to faith,” said the Metropolitan of Łódź and chairman of the Polish Bishops' Conference Committee for Dialogue with Judaism. As he added in an interview with Heschel Center News, it is necessary to “convert not to the Council itself, but to what the Holy Spirit said to the Church through this event.”
The living root of dialogue
The second “dream,” said Cardinal Ryś, concerns deepening relations with Judaism. He noted that in the teaching of the Church, “the emphasis today is shifting to relations with contemporary Judaism.” As he explained, it is not only about a shared biblical heritage, but about keeping the root alive.
The Metropolitan of Łódź added that although the theses of Nostra aetate – that Jews are not a cursed people, are not collectively responsible for the death of Jesus, and that anti-Semitism is evil – are widely shared today, “the problem is what specifically follows from them.”
Israeli Ambassador Jaakow Finkelstein recalled that, according to the Council document, the Church “condemns and mourns manifestations of anti-Semitism whenever and by whomever they occur.” However, he noted that anti-Semitism “is rearing its ugly head again.” “The IHRA definition clearly states that in many cases, criticism of Israel that crosses a certain line is also anti-Semitic—for example, when Jews are denied the right to self-determination, when double standards are applied to Israel, or when contemporary Israeli policy is compared to Nazi policy,” he said.
Common witness and prayer
Rabbi David Sandmel recalled that Nostra aetate was a “revolution in Christian-Jewish relations” that ended “teaching contempt.” He recalled that his father, Rabbi and biblical scholar Samuel Sandmel, “had never been invited to any Catholic institution before Nostra aetate was announced, but after its publication, it was as if the floodgates had opened.”
However, he noted that “rejecting anti-Semitism is the first step; learning to recognize it is a much more difficult task.”
French bishop Prof. Étienne Veto referred to the image of the olive tree from the Letter to the Romans. As he emphasized, the Church draws its sap from a living root. “The Jews have not been cut off—they are sometimes wounded, but not separated.” He also recalled the words of St. John Paul II that “the Old Covenant has never been revoked.”
The conference ended with a joint prayer by Jews and Christians. “If Nostra aetate is to live in anyone, it is in young people,” emphasized Cardinal Ryś, thanking the clergy, seminarians, and Jewish communities present.
New book – The Church after Nostra Aetate
During the conference, a new academic publication was presented: “The Catholic Church towards Jews and Judaism. Documents of the Holy See (1965–2015) and commentaries” edited by Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś and Prof. Sławomir Jacek Żurek from the Catholic University of Lublin.
It is the world's first compendium that brings together in one place all Vatican documents on relations with Judaism, accompanied by theological analyses by Fr. Prof. Andrzej Perzyński, Fr. Prof. Mirosław Wróbel, Fr. Prof. Alfred Wierzbicki, and Prof. Sławomir Jacek Żurek. The publication shows how much the Church's way of thinking has changed – from mistrust to a community of brotherhood and dialogue.
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Heschel Center News