On the 60th anniversary of the promulgation of the Second Vatican Council’s Nostra Aetate document on the Church’s relationship with non-Christian religions, Catholic Religious Australia has pledged to recommit to the document’s call to interfaith dialogue and collaboration.
Nostra Aetate was promulgated on October 28, 1965. The document marked a watershed moment in the teaching of the Church, speaking positively about other religions for the first time by affirming “the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values” to be found among them, asserting the unique spiritual relationship between Christianity and Judaism, and repudiating centuries-old prejudices held particularly against Jews, as well as other religious communities.
“Several of our religious congregations have ministries focused on dialogue with other religious traditions and have worked tirelessly over the decades since Nostra Aetate’s promulgation to build trust, understanding and mutual enrichment through dialogue,” CRA President, Br Gerard Brady CFC, said.
“While the grassroots uptake of Nostra Aetate’s teachings has been slow, the work of these consecrated men and women exemplify to all of us the importance of a commitment to forging interreligious friendships, to together work towards God’s Kingdom.”
Marking the anniversary of Nostra Aetate, Pope Leo XIV’s prayer intention for the month of October is for collaboration between different religious traditions, and he has prayed that “the concrete examples of peace, justice and fraternity in religions inspire us to believe that it is possible to live and work together, beyond our differences”.
CRA’s national executive director, Anne Walker, said: “We welcome the peace plan for the Middle East, recognising that the recent conflict has caused much human suffering and divisions between religious communities, also fuelling a rise in antisemitism as well as Islamophobia, globally and here in our Australian society.”
“Nostra Aetate, ‘In Our Time’, is a living document whose call to open dialogue and sincere friendship is as important today as it was 60 years ago. CRA commits to ongoing implementation of the document, as we earnestly seek to heal and renew interreligious relationships.”
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