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Nostra Aetate Celebrating 50 Years of Vatican II’S Declaration on the Church’S Relation with Non-Christian Religions

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Nostra Aetate Celebrating 50 Years of Vatican II’S Declaration on the Church’S Relation with Non-Christian Religions OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO ENGAGE September-October 2015 $1.00 lobal Vi G lla e g h e T NOSTRA AETATE Celebrating 50 years of Vatican II’s Declaration on the Church’s Relation with Non-Christian Religions September-October 2015/Scarboro Missions 1 ear friend of CONTENTS ScarboroD Missions... FEATURES Thank you for your faithful Nostra Aetate... Interreligious dialogue in the global village prayers and generosity to us. By Michael Attridge 4 We will continue to be good Nostra Aetate... A document that launched a movement of reconciliation stewards of all your gifts as we By Sr. Mary Boys, SNJM 6 put ourselves at the service of Nostra Aetate... Reflecting on the practical implications of inviting others. everyone to the table Compiled by Héctor Acero Ferrer 8 We welcome enquiries about Scarboro’s Nostra Aetate... Canada answers the call to engagement One-Year Mission program. By Murray Watson 10 Contact Carolyn Doyle Nostra Aetate... The story and its contemporary significance Phone: 416-261-7135, Ext. 280 By Gregory Baum 14 Toll-free: 1-800-260-4815 Email: [email protected] Nostra Aetate... The spirituality of interreligious dialogue www.scarboromissions.ca/one-year-mission- By Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, O.P. 16 program Nostra Aetate... Called to journey with indigenous peoples By Ron MacDonell, S.F.M. 18 Nostra Aetate... Implications for interreligious dialogue in Israel By Rabbi Dr. Ron Kronish 20 Nostra Aetate... Broadening the interfaith encounter through education By Ed Kessler 22 COLUMNS Editorial Volume 96, Number 3 By the editorial team 3 September-October 2015 Publisher: Scarboro Foreign Mission Society Editor/Designer: Kathy Gillis Website: www.scarboromissions.ca The Scarboro Foreign Mission Society (Charitable Reg. #11914 2164 RR0001) is a Roman Catholic missionary community involved in mission overseas and in Canada. Founded in Canada in 1918 by Fr. John Fraser, Scarboro’s initial purpose was to train and send missionary priests to China. Forced to leave China after the Second World War, Scarboro began working in the Caribbean, Asia, and Latin America. Scarboro Missions magazine publishes four editions each year, plus the calendar. The articles published represent the opinions of the authors and do not nec- essarily reflect the official position of the Society. The editorial team, L-R: Héctor Acero Ferrer and Sr. Lucy Thorson, Sister of Sion, Please address all inquiries to: Scarboro Missions, 2685 Kingston Road, Scarborough, ON, M1M 1M4. both Education and Liaison Development Officers with the Scarboro Missions Tel: 416-261-7135; Toll-free: 1-800-260-4815; Interfaith Department; and Kathy Gillis of Scarboro Missions magazine. Sr. Lucy Fax: 416-261-0820 and Héctor participated on the planning committee of The Global Village: Our Email: [email protected] (General) Responsibility to Engage conference of which Scarboro Missions is a sponsor. [email protected] (Magazine [email protected] (Subscriptions) Printed in Canada and mailed from Toronto East L.P.P., Scarborough, ON. Return postage guaranteed. ISSN 0700-6802 2 Scarboro Missions/September-October 2015 EDITORIAL NOSTRA AETATE... The call to interfaith engagement n the occasion of the 50th communities today. May it also serve the engagements that are taking place anniversary of the declaration as an opportunity to examine the past, throughout the world and in Canada. ONostra Aetate (In Our Time), present, and future of interreligious We are being called to broaden that Scarboro Missions magazine worked encounter in a world with a growing encounter with persons and commun- with an editorial team on this special need for peaceful coexistence. In order ities “in our time,” as we face the current edition that explores this groundbreak- to accomplish this goal, our authors and ongoing challenges of our society in ing interfaith document. This edition explore the importance of Nostra Aetate bringing about a just and peaceful world. constitutes one of Scarboro Mission’s in developing a new understanding of Our authors are conscious of the dif- contributions to The Global Village: interfaith and intercultural dialogue, ficulties surrounding the topic at hand. Our Responsibility to Engage confer- the significance of such dialogue in the Instead of giving definite answers to ence taking place this year on October broader engagement between commun- particular problems, they offer reflec- 8 at the University of St. Michael’s ities, and the pivotal role of interreli- tions that will trigger further dialogue College. Spearheaded by The Christian- gious encounter in a world suffering the and community engagement, as all of Jewish Dialogue of Toronto, this gather- consequences of fundamentalism and us attempt to respond to the question: ing is inspired by the universal call to fear of “the other.” “Where do we go in the next 50 years as engagement outlined by Nostra Aetate. The organizers of The Global Village: an interreligious and multicultural com- In order to better understand the Our Responsibility to Engage confer- munity?”∞ legacy of this interreligious achievement ence, and likewise the editorial team of of the Second Vatican Council, we have this magazine issue, highlight some of compiled a series of SIDIC ROME articles from accom- plished international figures in the field of dialogue. By examin- ing the document from their social context, each writer helps us integrate the teach- ings of Nostra Aetate in our personal, spirit- ual, and social lives. As Pope Francis reminds us, “either we stand together with the cul- ture of dialogue and encounter (in today’s world), or we all lose.” We hope that this Sisters of Sion Marie Laurice (left) and Marie Felix with Cardinal Augustin Bea, SJ, president of the issue will help to sup- Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, one of the preparatory commissions of Vatican II. The port and further the Secretariat prepared and presented three Council documents—on ecumenism, on non-Christian reli- work and commitment gions (Nostra Aetate), and on religious liberty. Cardinal Bea said that the Sisters of Sion had a particu- lar vocation that gave them a “special right” to speak of the Church’s spiritual relationship with the to dialogue that is tak- Jewish People. Because they were ahead of their time in terms of Catholic-Jewish dialogue, the Sisters ing place within our influenced the thinking of church leaders within the Second Vatican Council and helped give birth to Nostra Aetate. September-October 2015/Scarboro Missions 3 NOSTRA AETATE... Interreligious dialogue in the global village By Michael Attridge he Second Vatican Council (1962- “Since (Vatican II), little emphasis has been given on the 65) was called at a unique time in Tmodern history. Little more than dialogue of the world’s religions within the modern, a century and a half had passed since the even post-modern, global context. I am speaking here French Revolution, which resulted in the about the role of religion within the social, economic, separation of church and state, a real- ity that had a profound impact on the and political spheres of the 21st century.” age that followed. The 20th century saw enormous progress through scientific Florence in the 15th century had con- the council. St. Michael’s itself was host and technological advancement, such as demned other religions, specifically to such an event in 2005. It is time now, modern transportation and communi- the Jews. Five hundred years later, though, to look both at the present and cation. It also saw political change and the church took an entirely different towards the future. deep devastation—two world wars, the approach. It sought to embrace all that The positive relationship of the emergence of communism, the horrors was true and holy in other religions church to other world religions was a of the Shoah, nuclear weaponry and the and called on Catholics to promote breakthrough at the council. It permit- bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that which is good in them. With the ted the possibility of the Catholic Church and decolonization that now exposed Jews, the council affirmed that God to speak meaningfully as Christian smaller independent countries to the remains faithful to God’s covenant with dialogue partners to the other world exploitation of larger ones. the chosen people. In other words, at religions—to recognize the shared and Most of these events were part of the Vatican II the church invoked what common values of Christians with other lived experience of those who attended might be called broader or more univer- faith traditions. Since then, though, little Vatican II. Indeed, the opening words sal values (such as goodness, truth, holi- emphasis has been given on the dia- of the council’s Pastoral Constitution ness) to view its relationships with other logue of the world’s religions within the on the Church in the Modern World religions. In the past 50 years, this has modern, even post-modern, global con- (Gaudium et Spes), “The joys and hopes, allowed for a deep and fruitful dialogue text. I am speaking here about the role the griefs and anxieties…”, were espe- between the Catholic Church and the of religion within the social, economic, cially meaningful to the Fathers of the major religions of the world. and political spheres of the 21st century. council in the 1960s. It was a time of These broader contextual considerations great change—social, political, economic, Looking to the present and to were active and present in the 1960s and cultural—and the bishops sought to the future during the council, but they formed the respond and update the church’s teach- On October 8, 2015, the University of background for interreligious discus- ings in light of these modern times. St. Michael’s College will host a day-long sions. Today, it is time to foreground Against this backdrop, the council conference organized by the Jewish- these considerations, to bring them to promulgated the declaration on the Christian Dialogue of Toronto.
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