A Church in Dialogue The Catholic Church and Interreligious Dialogue Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration Nostra Aetate, on the Church’s Relationship to Non-Christian Religions, 1965-2015 “Dialogue is born from an attitude of respect for the other person, from a conviction that the other person has something good to say. It assumes that there is room in the heart for the person’s point of view, opinion, and proposal. To dialogue entails a cordial reception, not a prior condemna- tion. In order to dialogue, it is necessary to know how to lower the defences, open the doors of the house, and offer human warmth.” In 2011, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio wrote these words on interreligious dialogue in a book he co-authored with his friend and colleague Rabbi Abraham Skorka, entitled On Heaven and Earth (Image Books, 2013). As Archbishop of Buenos Aires, then-Cardinal Bergoglio was known to be a close friend of Argentina’s Jewish community. When, just a year later, he was elected as Pope Francis, many commentators highlighted his long-standing commitment to inter- religious relations as an important gift Photo: © L’Osservatore Romano he brought to the papacy—continuing the powerful example set by his predecessors, especially Pope Saint John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. At the root of that papal leadership in the area of interreligious dialogue lies the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and a brief but highly significant 1960 audience between Pope Saint John XXIII and the French Jewish historian Jules Isaac. ■■ The Beginnings of Nostra Aetate Isaac, a prominent scholar who had suffered the loss of several family members during the Shoah, had come to speak personally with Pope Saint John XXIII about his recent announcement of an ecumenical council of the world’s Catholic bishops—a council that today we know as the Second Vatican Council. Isaac brought the Pope a dossier of materials he had researched while in hiding during World War II, as he tried to understand the roots of the long-standing Christian attitude of viewing Jews and Judaism in a negative light, which many saw as a factor contributing to the tragedy of the Shoah. Romano Photo: © L’Osservatore Isaac requested that the Pope put a discussion of Catholic attitudes toward Judaism on the Council’s agenda. Could he at least hope for that? “You have a right to more than just hope” was Pope Saint John XXIII’s now-famous reply. The document whose seeds were sown at that 1960 meeting was Nostra Aetate (“In Our Time”), the Second Vatican Council’s landmark 1965 Declaration on the relationship of the Catholic Church to non-Christian religions. Spearheaded by the distinguished German Jesuit biblical scholar Cardinal Augustin Bea, a small committee of experts prepared the first drafts of a proposed document which was initially called simply De Judaeis (“On the Jews”), since the authors’ original mandate was limited to addressing the Christian-Jewish relationship. Its subject matter made it a challenge: should it be part of a larger document on the Church, or perhaps linked to a document on dialogue with other Christians? In the end, the input of bishops from around the world led the writers to expand the Declaration to include several other religious trad- itions. The longest section (§4) remains focused on Judaism. In its overall structure, Nostra Aetate begins with general guiding principles, and then proceeds to more specific comments on various religious trad- itions. It begins by pointing out how, in our modern world, dif- ferent religions increas- ingly interact with each other. Because it Photo: © L’Osservatore Romano belongs to the Church’s mission to foster the unity of all God’s children, the document seeks to highlight the things that Christianity shares in common with other religions, and to emphasize their positive, life-giving aspects, which Christians can appreciate and value. Despite their obvious differences, each religion seeks to answer certain basic questions about the cosmos, the meaning of life, the nature of good and evil, and the goal of our existence. A sense of the transcendent is common to religious traditions because, as our faith tells us, an orientation toward the transcendent is implanted deep within us as human beings. Our grappling with these fundamental issues links all believers, and through our sharing of our respective religious heritages, mutual enrichment is possible and, indeed, desirable. 2 ■■ The Church’s Relations with Hinduism and Buddhism Section 2 of Nostra Aetate provides a brief but thoughtful reflection on two of the largest religious families of the East, Hinduism and Buddhism, highlighting some aspects of each one’s spirituality. Hindus, the document says, “contemplate the divine mystery and express it through an inexhaustible abundance of myths, and through searching philosophical inquiry. They seek freedom from the anguish of our human condition either through ascet- ical practices or profound meditation or a flight to God with love and trust.” Similarly, “Buddhism, in its various forms, realizes the radical insufficiency of this changeable world; it teaches a way by which human beings, in a devout and confident spirit, may be able either to acquire the state of perfect libera- tion, or attain, by their own efforts or through Photo: © Pius Lee / Dreamstime.com higher help, supreme illumination.” In the five decades since Nostra Aetate was promulgated, religious leaders and schol- ars have often noted that its portrayals of ancient, complex and diverse traditions are necessarily incomplete. Yet, the very fact of their inclusion represented a major step forward for Catholicism. It was a concrete acknowledgement of the spiritual traditions encountered by over a hundred million Christians in Asia and elsewhere. By setting out to emphasize aspects of each religious tradition that Christians could affirm and value, the bishops fostered a new, more positive discourse that opened the door to fur- ther conversation and deeper understanding. In these and many other matters, Nostra Aetate provided an essential starting point, and not an end Photo: © Chantal de Bruijne / Shutterstock.com point, for these discussions, which have considerably deepened our understanding of other religious traditions. Many subsequent official Church documents have explored Nostra Aetate’s themes and have furthered the insights it contained. Here is the basic principle found in Nostra Aetate, which continues to inform Catholic engagement with these religions: 3 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 people. Indeed, she proclaims, and ever must proclaim Christ “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), in whom people may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to Himself (Cf 2 Cor. 5:18-19). The Church … exhorts her children that, through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, carried out with prudence and love and in witness to the Christian faith and life, they recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these people. (n. 2) Whatever is good, beautiful or true is ultimately rooted in the goodness, beauty and truth of God, who is the source of all beauty and truth. This rootedness in God pro- vides the foundation for a Christian dialogue with peoples of all beliefs. Such dialogue, the Declaration reminds us, must be rooted in love. But it also demands thoughtful, faith-based discernment, and aims to support and build upon what is most praise- worthy in the religious tradition of the other. ■■ The Church’s Relations with Islam In its third section, the Declaration addresses a question which has taken on increased importance in recent generations: the nature of the relationship between Christians and Muslims. The first line of that section provides a brief but important orientation to that discussion: “The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems.” Like Christians, Muslims believe Photo: © Hikrcn/Dreamstime.com-Nabawi mosque, Medina, Saudi Arabia Photo firmly in the oneness of God, although differently from the Christian Triune understanding: a God who is both almighty and all-merciful. Almost all of the suras, or chapters, of the Qur’an begin by invoking God, who is the essence of mercy itself. The document emphasizes the daily efforts of devout Muslims who wholeheartedly submit themselves to God’s revealed will, as did Abraham, our shared father in faith. It reminds Christians that both Jesus and Mary are highly revered in the Islamic tradition, even if the Christian and Muslim understandings do not coincide. Like Christians, Muslims aim to live lives of right- eousness, generosity, devotion and prayer, and, like Christians, they look ahead to the Day of Judgment, when God will judge all human beings according to their actions. 4 Nostra Aetate’s words regarding the painful history of Muslim- Christian relations are prophetic as we look back on them fifty years later: the Council urges all “... to work sincerely for mutual understanding and to preserve, as well as to promote together for the benefit of all humankind, social justice and moral welfare, Photo: © L’Osservatore Romano as well as peace and