Article by CCJ Vice-President Zaki Cooper, published on The Times on 1 November.

On Tuesday, religious leaders including rabbis, imams, Hindu priests, Buddhist monks and other clerics gathered at the Vatican’s Audience Hall for the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate. The landmark document issued by Pope Paul VI on October 28, 1965 during the Second Vatican Council was the first Vatican statement to focus in depth on the church’s relationship with Jews and Judaism.

Pope Leo XIV reaffirmed the church’s commitment to dialogue, describing how Nostra Aetate had grown from a seed into a “mighty tree” over six decades. He eulogised those who became “martyrs for dialogue who had stood against violence and hatred”. The Pope emphasised Christian-Jewish relations as “the heart and generative core of the declaration”.

Nostra Aetate expanded to encompass all major non-Christian faiths, fundamentally transforming the church’s interfaith relationships. For centuries the church propagated anti-Jewish teachings based on collective Jewish responsibility for Jesus’s death. This doctrine fuelled persecution, pogroms and expulsions across Christian countries. Replacement Theology, claiming Christianity represented God’s rejection of Jews, gained widespread credence. Nostra Aetate ended this dark chapter, stating unequivocally that Jews shouldn’t be blamed for Jesus’s death and acknowledging God’s continuing covenant with the Jewish people. It declared the church “decries hatred, persecutions, displays of antisemitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone”.

Much work remains. Coming from Chicago, a city with a sizeable Jewish population, Pope Leo probably encountered Jewish communities early on and understands this relationship’s importance. The demographic gap, 1.4 billion Catholics versus 16 million Jews, shouldn’t diminish its significance. In the western world, this original interfaith relationship sets the tone for broader inter-communal relations.

Five months into his pontificate, Pope Leo’s approach to key issues will shape Catholic-Jewish relations. The two-year Gaza conflict has strained interfaith relationships, particularly Jewish-Muslim dialogue, with broader implications for Vatican-Jewish relations. Pope Francis’s perceived Palestinian alignment troubled Jewish communities and complicated interfaith relations in Catholic European nations with governments hostile to Israel.

Pope Leo has signalled a more nuanced Gaza stance than his predecessor. A low point came in July when the only Catholic church in Gaza was mistakenly struck by Israel’s military, killing three. Recently, the Pope welcomed the return of Israeli hostages and endorsed the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. Should it hold, he will support the formidable task of rebuilding Gaza, bolstering the complex interfaith work required in the region. He will hope that Israeli religious bodies will show sensitivity and empathy for Christians in Israel and the Palestinian territories. He might also champion efforts for more Arab countries to recognise Israel and expand the Abraham Accords.

Second, the Pope should denounce antisemitism robustly, demonstrating zero tolerance within the church and addressing Jewish concerns about rising attacks, rhetoric and social media discourse. He can follow Pope John Paul II, who condemned antisemitism as sinful and “opposed to the very spirit of Christianity”. Though antisemitism is no longer mainstream in the church, isolated instances persist among traditionalist groups. Richard Williamson, the Catholic prelate and Holocaust denier who died this year, was excommunicated.

Third, Pope Leo can address problematic liturgy. Pope Francis restricted the Latin Mass Good Friday prayer, which historically called for Jewish conversion and referenced Jewish “blindness” until 2008. Pope Leo can continue this progress and counter aggressive evangelistic practices targeting Jews.

Finally, as a defender of religious values and ethical monotheism, Pope Leo can forge deeper partnerships with Jewish organisations on environmental stewardship, family values, technological ethics and anti-slavery initiatives. Interfaith relations too often focus defensively, yet a vast positive agenda exists based on shared moral codes. The Pope’s recent climate conference on October 1, attended by Jewish and other religious leaders, offers a model for future co-operation.

Yet true interfaith progress requires reciprocity. Jewish communities must also demonstrate commitment to deepening this relationship. Jewish leaders should engage more actively with Catholic communities at local and national levels, moving beyond crisis management to a proactive partnership. They can support some Catholic-led campaigns on end of life as well as other medical and ethical issues. They can also back educational efforts within Jewish organisations about basic Catholic theology and practice, countering lingering suspicions rooted in historical trauma. Jewish institutions should acknowledge and celebrate the church’s transformation over six decades, recognising that younger Catholics inherit a vastly different tradition than their grandparents.

Nostra Aetate fundamentally transformed Catholic-Jewish relations. The Church of England has also made important overtures, notably its 2019 God’s Unfailing Word (Theological and Practical Perspectives on Christian-Jewish Relations) report stating that Christian teaching had historically provided a “fertile seedbed for murderous antisemitism” and recognising that the Christian-Jewish relationship is a gift from God.

Looking ahead, we can dare to dream of Nostra Aetate equivalents involving Muslim leaders. Initiatives like Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar’s 2019 joint declaration, and the “Drumlanrig Reconciliation Accords” in the UK in February, presented to the King by Muslim and Jewish leaders, are welcome developments.

The Pope’s focus on Catholic-Jewish relations this week is also encouraging, but there is more to do.