Pope John XXIII, who will be canonized in April next year, convened the Second Vatican Council. The document ‘Nostra Aetate’ was promulgated in 1965. The 2015 ICCJ international conference will be held in Rome to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of this event that changed Jewish-Catholic relations fundamentally.
These particular texts, published now on Dialogika, have been assembled and translated in order to make easily available in one, central place historical materials for the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council declaration, Nostra Aetate, on the relationship of the church to non-Christian religions. Some of the documents in the collection are being made available in English for the first time.
Please access the collection via this link:
RESOURCES FOR THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF NOSTRA AETATE
The materials are organized into these sections:
1. Preconciliar Texts: from the late 19th and early 20th centuries when the Christian cultural and religious view prevailed that Jews were destined to suffer or live on the margins of society because of their rejection of Jesus Christ.
2. Precursors: Texts reflecting post-Shoah efforts to overcome theological anti-Judaism. Many of the ideas contained in them were taken up in Nostra Aetate. In addition to groundbreaking theological efforts, also included are accounts of meetings with Pope John XXIII and submissions to the Vatican from various sources in preparation for the Council.
3. Composition Process: Drafts and speeches that chart the development of what began as a statement only on Jews and Judaism but became a declaration on all the world's religions. Included are the addresses during the so-called "Great Debate" in the Council in September of 1964.
4. Official Conciliar and Post-Conciliar Texts: The final form of Nostra Aetate, a relevant excerpt from Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, and implementing documents of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and the Vatican Secretariat of State.
5. Papal Texts: Links to relevant writings of the post-conciliar popes.
6. Educational Resources: a section that will provide links to relevant curricula as they become available.
7. Anniversary Statements: a section that will provide documents issued in honor of the golden anniversary of Nostra Aetate.
The Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations wants to thank the following people for their assistance in various ways with specific items in the collection: Judith Banki, Victoria Barnett, Patrick Brannan, S.J., John Connelly, Flavia Galiani, Didier Pollefeyt, Dick Pruiksma, Olivier Rota, Joseph Sievers, and Murray Watson.