Vatican, International Jewish Committee mark 55th anniversary of Nostra Aetate (Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity)

Issued in 1965, Nostra Aetate is the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions. “It is without doubt that Nostra Aetate (no.4) laid the foundation for relations between Catholics and Jews and can therefore rightly be considered to be the ‘Magna Carta’ of Catholic–Jewish relations,” Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, said in an October 28 message. Rabbi Noam Marans, in his message, thanked Pope Francis for repeatedly denouncing anti-Semitism.