November 4, 2025 // Bishop

Catholic Leaders Mark ‘Nostra Aetate’ Anniversary

OSV NEWS

WASHINGTON, D.C. (OSV News) – Influential religious leaders reminded Catholics of their responsibility to combat antisemitism while celebrating the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, a transformative Church document in Catholic-Jewish relations, in the nation’s capital.

“To be Catholic is to believe that we will answer someday for what we’ve done, including for how we rose to the occasion – or didn’t – of being our brother’s keepers,” Mary Eberstadt, senior research fellow at the Faith & Reason Institute and the Panula chair in Christian culture at the Catholic Information Center, said on Tuesday, October 28, in a speech delivered by video.

Eberstadt and other experts spoke at a conference commemorating Nostra Aetate (“In Our Time”), the Second Vatican Council’s 1965 Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, at the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C. The day of reflection, “Called to Friendship: Nostra Aetate at 60: The Spiritual Heart of Catholic-Jewish Relations,” was hosted by the shrine in partnership with Philos Catholic, part of the Philos Project, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting positive Christian engagement in the Near East.

The day began with Mass and a welcome from Kathryn Jean Lopez, senior fellow at the National Review Institute, where she directs the Center for Religion, Culture, and Civil Society, and editor-at-large of National Review.

“We gather because it is clear from that document (Nostra Aetate) and from … truth and reality, that antisemitism is evil, it is a sin,” said Lopez, who served as the event’s emcee. “I might also add at the shrine dedicated to John Paul II, the author of Evangelium Vitae (‘The Gospel of Life’), it’s not pro-life to hate Jews.”

The conference came after a coalition of Catholic leaders promised to combat antisemitism and to promote friendship with the American Jewish community following the terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023, that began the Israel-Hamas War. The coalition was announced during a previous conference by the Philos Project and Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio in 2023.

Since that time, polls continue to track a rise in antisemitism. This October, two years after the October 7 attacks, a joint report by the Anti-Defamation League and Jewish Federations of North America found that more than half of Jewish Americans (55 percent) surveyed said they experienced at least one form of antisemitism in the past year.

Nostra Aetate, which condemns discrimination against people because of their religion and names several religions by name, specifically mentions Judaism and antisemitism.

“In her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel’s spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone,” it reads.

Speakers delved into the history and meaning of Nostra Aetate, including Gavin D’Costa, professor at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, who addressed Catholic Zionism, and George Weigel, distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, or EPPC, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies, who focused on St. John Paul II.

“The council fully acknowledged that God does not repent of His covenant with the people of Israel, that Jesus and His first followers understood themselves to be sons and daughters of that covenant, that antisemitism is a grave sin, and that Jews and Catholics are providentially entangled in a way we shall never fully understand until the Kingdom of God is established in its fullness,” Weigel, who delivered the keynote address, said of Vatican II.

Among other things, he added, Nostra Aetate teaches that “antisemitism – Jew hatred – is Christ hatred.”

The speakers stressed that everyday people can also push back against antisemitism, including Luma Simms, a fellow at the EPPC, who spoke about antisemitism in some immigrant communities and the healing power of Western Christianity.

As strategic adviser at the Philos Project, Phillip Dolitsky moderated a discussion about “Why Should I Care About Jewish-Catholic Relations?” Panelists included Kathryn Wolf, writer and founder of the nonprofit It Is Us; Rabbi Joshua Stanton, associate vice president for interfaith and intergroup initiatives at the Jewish Federations of North America; Yael Freimann, a strategist and organizational culture expert; Simone Rizkallah, director of Philos Catholic; and Peter Wolfgang, executive director of the Family Institute of Connecticut.

Dolitsky and Rizkallah focused on the importance of genuine friendships between Christians and Jews. Many speakers also expressed concern for rising antisemitism among younger generations, especially online. Wolfgang said that in recent years younger generations, beginning with millennials, have had a reaction against the Second Vatican Council.

Wrapping up the conference, Eberstadt also mentioned younger generations while reminding listeners that Pope St. John Paul II, Venerable Fulton J. Sheen, and Cardinal O’Connor “affirm that to hate the Jews is to hate the Christians.”

“To hate your Jewish brother is to hate your Catholic self,” she said. “And unlikely as it might have seemed before the massacres of October 7, the West today needs to hear that message. America, especially young America, needs to hear that message.”

She concluded by quoting Archbishop Sheen: “We must look upon the persecution of Jews and Christians today not as separate, unrelated causes but involving one another in some way because both are related to God.”

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Bishop Rhoades on ‘Nostra Aetate’

The following is a portion of a statement Bishop Rhoades made in 2020 entitled “Friendship with Our Jewish Brothers and Sisters.”

It was Pope St. John Paul II who coined the beautiful expression of our “elder brothers” as he spoke to Jews in the synagogue of Rome on April 13, 1986. A few years ago, in the same synagogue, Pope Francis recalled this very phrase and again told the Jewish community there: “You are our elder brothers and sisters in the faith.” …

The Jews are not our enemies. We are bound together with them in friendship as brothers and sisters in the family of God. In the synagogue of Rome in 2016, Pope Francis spoke of the spiritual bond between Jews and Christians and the importance of fostering an authentic friendship. He said, “In interreligious dialogue it is fundamental that we encounter each other as brothers and sisters before our Creator and that we praise him: and that we respect and appreciate each other and try to cooperate.” This is especially important as the Church and the Jewish communities continue to address religious and ethical questions that both face in a world intent upon challenging religious freedom. Jews and Christians can impact society profoundly when they stand together on key issues such as the sanctity of human life, immigration reform, health care, human trafficking, and world peace.

Even as we Catholics profess our belief in Christ as the Messiah, the Son of God, and Savior of the world, we also recognize God’s unfailing, steadfast love for His chosen people, Israel. In our mission of preaching Christ to the world, we do not dismiss or reject the spiritual treasures of the Jewish people. Also, as Pope St. John Paul II said in Miami in 1987: “Differences in faith should not cause enmity but open up the way of reconciliation, so that in the end ‘God may be all in all’ (1 Corinthians 15:28).” Similarly, Pope Benedict XVI said that in those areas of faith in which we diverge, “we need to show respect and love for one another” (Visit to Synagogue of Cologne, 19 August 2005).

In this age of social media, people read or listen to all kinds of opinions expressed about Judaism and the Jewish people on internet blogs, websites, and the like. Some are filled with false and hateful rhetoric, opposed to the very spirit of Christianity. As Catholics, we must reject any that express, or can lead to, contempt for Jews. It is important that Catholics embrace and follow the message of Nostra Aetate, the authoritative, conciliar teaching of the Church. Pope St. John Paul II said that it is “a teaching which it is necessary to accept not merely as something fitting, but much more as an expression of the faith, as an inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as a word of the Divine Wisdom” (L’Osservatore Romano, January 29, 1985).

Let us give thanks to God for the growth in trust and friendship established between Catholics and Jews since the Second Vatican Council. May the Lord accompany us on our journey of friendship and bless us with His peace!