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== Post-Conciliar Developments == |
== Post-Conciliar Developments == |
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Nostra Aetate was one of Vatican II's three declarations, the other documents consisting of nine decrees and four constitutions. The changes to be brought about by the declaration on the Church's Relations with non-Christian Religions, ''Nostra Aetate'', carried implications not fully appreciated at the time. |
Nostra Aetate was one of Vatican II's three declarations, the other documents consisting of nine decrees and four constitutions. The changes to be brought about by the declaration on the Church's Relations with non-Christian Religions, ''Nostra Aetate'', carried implications not fully appreciated at the time. |
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= CIRJ = |
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To flesh out these implications and ramifications, the Vatican's Commission on Interrelegious Relations with the Jews issued its ''Guidelines and Suggestions for Implementing the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate'' in late 1974. This was followed by that same body's ''Notes on the Correct Way to Present Jews and Judaism in the Teaching and Catechesis of the Roman Catholic Church'' in 1985. These developments were paralleled by accompanying statements from the U.S. bishops. |
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== Nostra Aetate 40 Years On == |
== Nostra Aetate 40 Years On == |
Revision as of 20:48, 8 September 2006
Nostra Ætate is the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions of the Second Vatican Council. Passed by a vote of 2,221 to 88 of the assembled bishops, this declaration was promulgated on October 28, 1965, by Pope Paul VI. The title means "In our Time" in Latin and is from the first line of the declaration as is customary with Roman Catholic documents. (The full text in English of the declaration is available on the Holy See's website see here. For the original Latin, see here.) For a translation in English, [1].
Origins of the Document
Several events came together in the summer of 1960 and led up to Pope John XXIII's commissioning of Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity President Cardinal Augustin Bea to draft a declaration on the Church's relations with the Jews on September 18. (Stransky [p. 9] maintains that the pope did not directly order that a schema for the council itself be drafted). The first event was a petition by the Biblical Institute dated April 24, 1960 asking that the upcoming Council include the Jewish people and their relation to the Christian Church while considering ecumenical questions. The second event was the visit by the French Jewish scholar/historian Jules Isaac to Pope John XXIII on June 13. The third event was a request by Monsignor John Oesterreicher's Institute of Judeo-Christian Relations at Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ, for an initiative similar to that requested by Biblical Institute's petition. Msgr. Oesterreicher saw all of this as a continuation of the work of popes Pius XI and Pius XII. (Oesterreicher 108-119).
History of the Drafting Process
Approximately fourteen months after Cardinal Bea was commissioned by Pope John XXIII the first draft, entitled "Decree on the Jews" ("Decretum de Judaeis") was completed, that is, in November 1961. This draft essentially went nowhere, never having been submitted to the Council, which opened on 11 October 1962. It was then redone as a supplementary fourth chapter of a "Dedree on Ecumenism," already being discussed at that time. Debate on this document, "On the Attitude of Catholics Toward Non-Christians and Especially Toward Jews," although distributed to the Council's Second Session on 8 November 1963, was postponed until the Third Session. This draft was notable for addressing the "deicide" charge against the Jews head-on, saying "it is wrong to call them an accursed people,...or a deicidal people,..." The third draft,"On the Jews and Non-Christians," came out as an appendix to the "Schema on Ecumenism." It deleted the word "deicidal" and added material on other world religions, especially Muslims. In presenting the document to the Council on 28 September 1964, Cardinal Bea encouraged the Council Fathers to strengthen it (see "The Drafting of 'Nostra Aetate'").
The Debate on the Draft
The only publicly-recorded debate on the draft of Nostra Aetate took place on 28 and 29 September 1964. While not part of the text, these debates, along with the post-conciliar documents, provide insights into the thinking of the Council fathers and provide rationale for the document. The debate was notable for the participation of such luminaries of the U.S. Hierarchy as Cardinals Ritter of St. Louis, Cushing of Boston, Meyer of Chicago, and Shehan of Baltimore, as well as Archbishop O'Boyle of Washington and Auxiliary Bishop of San Antonio Sephen Leven. Other prelates from North America and around the world also spoke. They included Cardinals Lecaro of Bologne, Lienart of Lille, König of Vienna, and Léger of Montreal, as well as archbishops Pocock of Toronto, Heenan of Westminister, and Sheper of Zagreb as well as Coadjutor-Archbishop Elchinger of Strasbourg, and Bishop Daem of Antwerp (see Oestereicher, pp. 195ff.).
Nostra Aetate and the Muslims
As can be seen from the above account, the queston of Islam was not on the agenda when Nostra Aetate was first drafted, or even at the opening the Second Vatican Council. Hoever, as in the case of the question of Judaism, several events again came together to prompt consideration of Islam. By the time of the Second Session of the Council in 1963 reservations began to be raised by bishops of the Middle East about the inclusion of this question. The position was taken that either the queston not be raised at all, or if it were raised then some mention of the Muslims be made. Melkite patriarch Maximos IV was among those pushing for this latter position.
Also, the period between the first and second sessions say the change from one pontifiate to another, that of Pope Paul VI, who had been a member of the circle of the Islamologist Louis Massignon (1883-1962). Pope Paul VI chose to follow the path recommended by Maximos IV and established commissions to introduce what would become paragraphs on the Muslims in two different document, one of them being Nostra Aetate, parqagraph three, the other being Lumen Gentium, paragraph 16 (see Robinson, pp. 194-195).
Summary of the Final Text of Nostra Aetate
- Introduction
- Hindus and Buddhists
- Muslims
- Jews
- Conclusion
°The Declaration begins by describing the unity of the origin of all people, and the fact that they all return to God; hence their final goal is also one. It describes the eternal questions which have dogged men since the beginning, and how the various religious traditions have tried to answer them.
°It mentions some of the answers that Hindus and Buddhists have suggested for such philosophical questions and then categorically states: "The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men."
°Part three goes on to say that the Catholic Church regards the Muslims with esteem, and then continues by describing some of the things Islam has in common with Christianity and Catholicism: worship of One God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, Merciful and Omnipotent, Who has spoken to men; the Muslims' respect for Abraham and Mary, and the great respect they have for Jesus, whom they consider to be a Prophet and not God. The synod urged all Catholics and Muslims to forget the hostilities and differences of the past and to work together for mutual understanding and benefit.
°Part four speaks of the bond that ties the people of the 'New Covenant' (Christians) to Abraham's stock (Jews). It states that even though some Jewish authorities and those who followed them called for Jesus' death, the blame for this cannot be laid at the door of all those Jews present at that time, nor can the Jews in our time be held as guilty, thus repudiating the charge of deicide; 'the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God'. The Declaration also decries all displays of antisemitism made at any time by anyone.
°The fifth part states that all men are created in God's image, and that it is contrary to the teaching of the Church to discriminate against, show hatred towards or harass any person or people on the basis of colour, race, religion, way of life and so on.
Post-Conciliar Developments
Nostra Aetate was one of Vatican II's three declarations, the other documents consisting of nine decrees and four constitutions. The changes to be brought about by the declaration on the Church's Relations with non-Christian Religions, Nostra Aetate, carried implications not fully appreciated at the time.
CIRJ
To flesh out these implications and ramifications, the Vatican's Commission on Interrelegious Relations with the Jews issued its Guidelines and Suggestions for Implementing the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate in late 1974. This was followed by that same body's Notes on the Correct Way to Present Jews and Judaism in the Teaching and Catechesis of the Roman Catholic Church in 1985. These developments were paralleled by accompanying statements from the U.S. bishops.
Nostra Aetate 40 Years On
The above-referenced statements by the Vatican's Comission for Interreligious Relations with the Jews well as other developments, including the establishment of more than two dozen centers for Christian-Jewish understanding at Catholic institutions of higher learning in the United States along with the participaton by rabbis in seminarian formation training demonstrate how the church has embraced Nostra Aetate. The significance of Nostra Aetate as a new starting point in the Church's relations with Judaism, in light of the foregoing, can be appreciated from the vantage point of the passage of forty years. The U.S. Congress passsed a resoluton acknowledging Nostra Aetate at forty, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. also noted this anniversary. This is in additon to the marking of the occasion at the Vatican's Gregorian University itself and at major centers of Christian-Jewish understanding around the United States.
Bibliography
Akasheh, Khaled. "Nostra Aetate" 40 Years later: 'Dialogue' Between Cristians and Muslims" L'Osservatore Romano, 28 June 2006, p. 8. Reprinted at: (http://www.ewtn.com/library/CHISTORY/chrstnsmslms.HTM)
Bea, Augustin Cardinal, S.J. "The Church and the non-Christian Religions' The Month (Jan 1966), reprinted in The Way to Unity After the Council. Geoffery Chapman, 1967).
Cassidy, Edward Idris Cardinal. Ecumenism and Inter-Religious Dialogue: Unitatis Redintegration, Nostra Aetate (Paulist Press, 2005), esp. Section II Nostra Aetate, pp. 125-225.
Cunningham, Philip A, "Uncharted Waters" Commonweal, July 14, 2006 (Vol 133, No 13) (http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/article.php3?id_article=1687)
"The Drafting of Nostra Aetate" (http://www.bc.edu/research/cjl/meta-elements/texts/cjrelations/resources/education/NA_draft_history.htm)
Guidelines and Suggestions for Implementing the Conciliar Declaration 'Nostra Aetate (No. 4)http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/relations-jews-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_19741201_nostra-aetate_en.html).
"40th Anniversary of Nostra Aetate" [A collection of resources]: http://www.bc.edu/research/cjl/meta-elements/texts/cjrelations/topics/NA-40.htm
House Congressional Resolution 250 recognizing 40th Anniversary of Nostra Aetate (http://wwwc.house.gov/International_relations/109/hres260.pdf#search=%22nostra%20aetate%20260%22)
"In Our Time," The Forward, Oct. 28, 2005 (reprinted at http://www.jcrelations.net/en/?id=2578).
"Nostra Aetate: Transforming the Catholic-Jewish Relationship" [a symposium]: http://www.adl.org/main_Interfaith/nostra_aetate.htm
Notes on the Correct Way to Present the Jews and Judaism in the Teaching and Catechesis of the Roman Catholic Church, 1985 (http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/relations-jews-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_19820306_jews-judaism_en.html)
Oesterreicher, Msgr. John M. The New Encounter between Christians and Jews (Philosophical Library, 1986), esp. pp. 103-295.
Robinson, Neal. "Massignon, Vatican II and Islam as an Abrahamic Religion" Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations," Dec., 1991 (Vol. 2, No. 2), pp. 183-205).
Rosen, Rabbi David. "'Nostra Aetate'" Forty Years after Vatican II, Present and Future Perspectives (http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/relations-jews-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_20051027_rabbi-rosen_en.htm)
Stransky, Rev. Thomas. "The Genesis of Nostra Aetate," America Oct. 24, 2005 (Vol. 193, No. 2)(a comemmorative reflection written by a close oberver of the Nostra Aetate drafting process).
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "The Interfaith Story behind Nostra Aetate" (A special presentation on the 40th Anniversary of Nostra Aetate) (http://www.ushmm.org/research/center/presentations/features/details/2005-12-07/)
Willebrands, Johannes Cardinal. "Christians and Jews: A New Vision" in Vatican II Revisited, by those Who Were There (Winston Press, 1986), pp. 236.