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Nostra Aetate PDF version Read the document 2023 Anniversary of Nostra Aetate | resource page Nostra Aetate 4: three central messages It is often said that the Second Vatican Council, the great Council of reform of the 1960s inaugurated by Pope John XXIII, was a watershed moment in the history of Jewish-Christian relations. So, what did Vatican II say that was so ground-breaking? And how does it influence what is taught in Catholic schools? ​ Three statements are of fundamental importance: 1. Jesus the Jew and the Jewish roots of the Church The first relates to the Council Fathers’ call to remember the Jewish roots of the Church: “Sounding the depths of the mystery which is the Church, this sacred council remembers the spiritual ties which link the people of the new covenant to the stock of Abraham” (Nostra Aetate, 4). ​ In doing so, we remember that Jesus was, and always remained, a Jew. As a faithful ‘son of Israel’ he was circumcised as a baby, raised on the stories of his ancestors, prayed Jewish prayers, celebrated Jewish festivals. As an adult he based his life and teaching on the Torah. Whatever debates he entered into with other Jews were intra-Jewish debates. He was fully a person of his Jewish first-century environment, as also were Mary, the apostles and most of the early disciples. All this is expressive of the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation. As God in human form, Jesus of Nazareth was not some kind of abstract, generic human being. He was Jewish. Today the Church embraces the fact that Christianity’s deepest roots lie in Judaism; that the New Testament is grounded in the divine authority of the Old Testament scriptures. These Jewish origins are significant not only as an historical backdrop, or as a ‘preparatory’ phase. Rather, they inform the core of Christian self-understanding. Recall that John’s Gospel has Jesus saying, “Salvation is from the Jews” (Jn 4:22). With its roots in Judaism, Christianity cannot live apart from the soil in which it is planted. Pope John Paul II put it this way: “The church of Christ discovers her ‘bond’ with Judaism by ‘searching into her own mystery.’ The Jewish religion is not ‘extrinsic’ to us, but in a certain way is ‘intrinsic’ to our own religion. With Judaism, therefore, we have a relationship which we do not have with any other religion.” ​ 2. The Jews are the beloved people of God. Secondly, echoing the words of St Paul in Romans 11:28-29, Vatican II taught that “the Jews remain very dear to God, for the sake of the patriarchs, since God does not take back the gifts he bestowed or the choice he made” (Nostra Aetate, 4; Lumen Gentium, 16).* ​ Subsequent Church documents and papal teachings illuminate the significance of this statement. No longer can the Church be viewed as ‘replacing’ Israel. Gone is the insidious ‘language of contempt’ whereby Jews were accused of being ‘Christ-killers’ rejected from God’s embrace. Rather, the Jewish people are recognised as God’s beloved, as a people in a living covenantal relationship with God who never reneges on divine promises. What is extraordinary is that, in the 1960s, in order to speak of the Jews as the beloved people of God, the Council Fathers had to reach back nearly two millennia to find an authoritative Christian text to ground their statement. This gives you some idea of how deeply entrenched were anti-Jewish attitudes and how ground-breaking the Vatican II teaching. Not since St Paul had official ecclesial documents spoken like this! The Council’s teaching has given rise to new challenges. A question for Christian scholars today is “the highly complex theological question of how Christian belief in the universal salvific significance of Jesus Christ can be combined in a coherent way with the equally clear statement of faith in the never-revoked covenant of God with Israel” (CRRJ, Gifts and Call, 2015). This is a profound question with which theologians continue to grapple. Meanwhile, affirmation of Jewish covenantal life can be consistently traced in official ecclesial documents in the decades since the Council. We see this most recently in the revised Vatican Directory for Catechesis issued (March 2020) which reaffirms that God’s covenant with the Jewish people “has never been revoked (cf Rom 11:28-29) and retains its validity” (n. 348). ​ 3. Rejection of antisemitism A third important statement of Vatican II was its rejection of antisemitism. In Nostra Aetate, 4 we read that the Church “decries hatred, persecutions, displays of antisemitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone”. Although this may strike Catholics as an ‘obvious’ thing to say, we need to be aware of the tragic legacy of Christian animosity towards Jews, and how confronting it is for the Church to face the fact that the Shoah (Holocaust) occurred in a Europe shaped by a long Christian tradition. The Shoah is not only part of Jewish history; shamefully, it is Christian history. Nazism, in itself, was not a Christian phenomenon; however centuries of church-sanctioned anti-Jewish attitudes helped to create the cultural conditions that allowed Nazism to emerge. Today the Church maintains an imperative to remember these diabolical events, recognising that overcoming antisemitism is not a finished task. Pope John Paul II spoke of an “enduring call to repentance.” No community can completely purge itself of two millennia of anti-Jewish influences in just fifty years. It takes time. And it requires vigilance towards the new guises under which antisemitism can reappear. ​ Engaging with ‘Living’ Judaism As the Church today applies the teaching of Vatican II, it urges its members to engage with “living Judaism”. In the Vatican’s phrasing, Christians “must strive to learn by what essential traits Jews define themselves in the light of their own religious experience” (Guidelines, 1974; Notes, 1985). This is an important statement. It exhorts Christians to stop presuming and to start listening to and learning from present-day Jews. The Jewish religion today is not the same as ancient Judaism. Just as Christianity has evolved since the time of Jesus, so has Judaism. We cannot simply read something in the Bible and presume to know what Jews today believe and practise. ​ All this affects how the Catholic faith is taught. In the voice of the Vatican, “The Jews and Judaism should not occupy an occasional and marginal place in catechesis: their presence there is essential and should be organically integrated” (Notes, 1985). The 2020 Directory for Catechesis re-echoes that catechesis “must pay special attention to the Jewish religion and to the themes of Judaism”. ​ Finally, through its many statements, the Church acknowledges that Christians and Jews both place their hope in a future known to God. With this comes a responsibility to stand shoulder to shoulder in the task of preparing the world for God’s kingdom of justice and peace. In that task alone, there is much to unite Christians and Jews for the sake of the world. ​ © Teresa Pirola, 2020. lightoftorah.net Reproduction for non-commercial use permitted with acknowledgment of website. ​ * The main Vatican II document usually cited with regard to Jewish-Christian relations is Nostra Aetate, the Declaration on the Church’s Relations with Non-Christian Religions (1965). Notably, two earlier conciliar documents—the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church and the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation— both contain paragraphs (e.g., nos. 16 and 14 respectively) that support the key theological articulation found in Nostra Aetate.

Resources Links of Interest 2023 Anniversary of Nostra Aetate - click here for resource page C ATHOLIC-JEWISH RELATIONS : TWELVE KEY THEMES FOR TEACHING AND PREACHING By Teresa Pirola Published by Paulist Press, 2023 224 pages ​ This book provides an introductory guide to key themes articulated in conciliar, papal, and curial statements of the Catholic Church as part of its ongoing dialogue and friendship with the Jewish people. More... The author’s intent is that the gains of the past sixty years of ecclesial renewal become better known to nonspecialist and grassroots audiences and to help instill a wakeful, informed awareness of what is arguably the most exciting and far-reach ing development in the Catholic Church today: a reawakening to the Jewish foundations of Christian faith and the Church's ongoing path of reconciliation and partnership with the Jewish people. ​ Teresa Pirola, ThD, is a Catholic writer and pastoral animator who has been active in diocesan and parish ministries and lay ecclesial movements for many years in Australia. ​ Order from Paulist Press Pauline Books & Media and other book stores “TEN COMMA NDMENTS” TO GUIDE CATHOLICS IN WALKING WITH JEWS Maxims for Mutuality: Principles for Catholic Theology, Education, and Preaching about Jews and Judaism by Philip A. Cunningham (Paulist Press, 2022). 124 pp. By a leading scholar in the area of Jewish-Christian theological dialogue, this book offers a set of ten maxims designed as a guide for Catholic theologians, preachers, and educators in knowing how best to approach Judaism and to ‘walk with’ Jews. More… The JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN LITURGICAL CALENDAR, 2023-24 Etz-Hayim - Tree of Life Publishing has released the latest edition of its liturgical calendar, featuring both the Jewish and Christian cycles of holidays, festivals and readings for 16 months from September 2023 to December 2024. Download your copy, free. More.. . ​ AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS LAUNCH NEW DOCUMENT ON CATHOLIC-JEWISH RELATIONS 21 March 2023. The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) has launched a new document affirming the Jewish roots of Christianity and the reconciled relationship between Christians and Jews in the post-Nostra Aetate era. Read more about the launch of “Walking Together: Catholics and Jews in the Australian Context” at the CathNews website and see the ACBC media release . ​ Download the document Walking Together: Catholics and Jews in the Australian Context

Nostra Aetate PDF version Read the document 2023 Anniversary of Nostra Aetate | resource page Nostra Aetate 4: three central messages It is often said that the Second Vatican Council, the great Council of reform of the 1960s inaugurated by Pope John XXIII, was a watershed moment in the history of Jewish-Christian relations. So, what did Vatican II say that was so ground-breaking? And how does it influence what is taught in Catholic schools? ​ Three statements are of fundamental importance: 1. Jesus the Jew and the Jewish roots of the Church The first relates to the Council Fathers’ call to remember the Jewish roots of the Church: “Sounding the depths of the mystery which is the Church, this sacred council remembers the spiritual ties which link the people of the new covenant to the stock of Abraham” (Nostra Aetate, 4). ​ In doing so, we remember that Jesus was, and always remained, a Jew. As a faithful ‘son of Israel’ he was circumcised as a baby, raised on the stories of his ancestors, prayed Jewish prayers, celebrated Jewish festivals. As an adult he based his life and teaching on the Torah. Whatever debates he entered into with other Jews were intra-Jewish debates. He was fully a person of his Jewish first-century environment, as also were Mary, the apostles and most of the early disciples. All this is expressive of the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation. As God in human form, Jesus of Nazareth was not some kind of abstract, generic human being. He was Jewish. Today the Church embraces the fact that Christianity’s deepest roots lie in Judaism; that the New Testament is grounded in the divine authority of the Old Testament scriptures. These Jewish origins are significant not only as an historical backdrop, or as a ‘preparatory’ phase. Rather, they inform the core of Christian self-understanding. Recall that John’s Gospel has Jesus saying, “Salvation is from the Jews” (Jn 4:22). With its roots in Judaism, Christianity cannot live apart from the soil in which it is planted. Pope John Paul II put it this way: “The church of Christ discovers her ‘bond’ with Judaism by ‘searching into her own mystery.’ The Jewish religion is not ‘extrinsic’ to us, but in a certain way is ‘intrinsic’ to our own religion. With Judaism, therefore, we have a relationship which we do not have with any other religion.” ​ 2. The Jews are the beloved people of God. Secondly, echoing the words of St Paul in Romans 11:28-29, Vatican II taught that “the Jews remain very dear to God, for the sake of the patriarchs, since God does not take back the gifts he bestowed or the choice he made” (Nostra Aetate, 4; Lumen Gentium, 16).* ​ Subsequent Church documents and papal teachings illuminate the significance of this statement. No longer can the Church be viewed as ‘replacing’ Israel. Gone is the insidious ‘language of contempt’ whereby Jews were accused of being ‘Christ-killers’ rejected from God’s embrace. Rather, the Jewish people are recognised as God’s beloved, as a people in a living covenantal relationship with God who never reneges on divine promises. What is extraordinary is that, in the 1960s, in order to speak of the Jews as the beloved people of God, the Council Fathers had to reach back nearly two millennia to find an authoritative Christian text to ground their statement. This gives you some idea of how deeply entrenched were anti-Jewish attitudes and how ground-breaking the Vatican II teaching. Not since St Paul had official ecclesial documents spoken like this! The Council’s teaching has given rise to new challenges. A question for Christian scholars today is “the highly complex theological question of how Christian belief in the universal salvific significance of Jesus Christ can be combined in a coherent way with the equally clear statement of faith in the never-revoked covenant of God with Israel” (CRRJ, Gifts and Call, 2015). This is a profound question with which theologians continue to grapple. Meanwhile, affirmation of Jewish covenantal life can be consistently traced in official ecclesial documents in the decades since the Council. We see this most recently in the revised Vatican Directory for Catechesis issued (March 2020) which reaffirms that God’s covenant with the Jewish people “has never been revoked (cf Rom 11:28-29) and retains its validity” (n. 348). ​ 3. Rejection of antisemitism A third important statement of Vatican II was its rejection of antisemitism. In Nostra Aetate, 4 we read that the Church “decries hatred, persecutions, displays of antisemitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone”. Although this may strike Catholics as an ‘obvious’ thing to say, we need to be aware of the tragic legacy of Christian animosity towards Jews, and how confronting it is for the Church to face the fact that the Shoah (Holocaust) occurred in a Europe shaped by a long Christian tradition. The Shoah is not only part of Jewish history; shamefully, it is Christian history. Nazism, in itself, was not a Christian phenomenon; however centuries of church-sanctioned anti-Jewish attitudes helped to create the cultural conditions that allowed Nazism to emerge. Today the Church maintains an imperative to remember these diabolical events, recognising that overcoming antisemitism is not a finished task. Pope John Paul II spoke of an “enduring call to repentance.” No community can completely purge itself of two millennia of anti-Jewish influences in just fifty years. It takes time. And it requires vigilance towards the new guises under which antisemitism can reappear. ​ Engaging with ‘Living’ Judaism As the Church today applies the teaching of Vatican II, it urges its members to engage with “living Judaism”. In the Vatican’s phrasing, Christians “must strive to learn by what essential traits Jews define themselves in the light of their own religious experience” (Guidelines, 1974; Notes, 1985). This is an important statement. It exhorts Christians to stop presuming and to start listening to and learning from present-day Jews. The Jewish religion today is not the same as ancient Judaism. Just as Christianity has evolved since the time of Jesus, so has Judaism. We cannot simply read something in the Bible and presume to know what Jews today believe and practise. ​ All this affects how the Catholic faith is taught. In the voice of the Vatican, “The Jews and Judaism should not occupy an occasional and marginal place in catechesis: their presence there is essential and should be organically integrated” (Notes, 1985). The 2020 Directory for Catechesis re-echoes that catechesis “must pay special attention to the Jewish religion and to the themes of Judaism”. ​ Finally, through its many statements, the Church acknowledges that Christians and Jews both place their hope in a future known to God. With this comes a responsibility to stand shoulder to shoulder in the task of preparing the world for God’s kingdom of justice and peace. In that task alone, there is much to unite Christians and Jews for the sake of the world. ​ © Teresa Pirola, 2020. lightoftorah.net Reproduction for non-commercial use permitted with acknowledgment of website. ​ * The main Vatican II document usually cited with regard to Jewish-Christian relations is Nostra Aetate, the Declaration on the Church’s Relations with Non-Christian Religions (1965). Notably, two earlier conciliar documents—the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church and the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation— both contain paragraphs (e.g., nos. 16 and 14 respectively) that support the key theological articulation found in Nostra Aetate.

Nostra Aetate PDF version Read the document 2023 Anniversary of Nostra Aetate | resource page Nostra Aetate 4: three central messages It is often said that the Second Vatican Council, the great Council of reform of the 1960s inaugurated by Pope John XXIII, was a watershed moment in the history of Jewish-Christian relations. So, what did Vatican II say that was so ground-breaking? And how does it influence what is taught in Catholic schools? ​ Three statements are of fundamental importance: 1. Jesus the Jew and the Jewish roots of the Church The first relates to the Council Fathers’ call to remember the Jewish roots of the Church: “Sounding the depths of the mystery which is the Church, this sacred council remembers the spiritual ties which link the people of the new covenant to the stock of Abraham” (Nostra Aetate, 4). ​ In doing so, we remember that Jesus was, and always remained, a Jew. As a faithful ‘son of Israel’ he was circumcised as a baby, raised on the stories of his ancestors, prayed Jewish prayers, celebrated Jewish festivals. As an adult he based his life and teaching on the Torah. Whatever debates he entered into with other Jews were intra-Jewish debates. He was fully a person of his Jewish first-century environment, as also were Mary, the apostles and most of the early disciples. All this is expressive of the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation. As God in human form, Jesus of Nazareth was not some kind of abstract, generic human being. He was Jewish. Today the Church embraces the fact that Christianity’s deepest roots lie in Judaism; that the New Testament is grounded in the divine authority of the Old Testament scriptures. These Jewish origins are significant not only as an historical backdrop, or as a ‘preparatory’ phase. Rather, they inform the core of Christian self-understanding. Recall that John’s Gospel has Jesus saying, “Salvation is from the Jews” (Jn 4:22). With its roots in Judaism, Christianity cannot live apart from the soil in which it is planted. Pope John Paul II put it this way: “The church of Christ discovers her ‘bond’ with Judaism by ‘searching into her own mystery.’ The Jewish religion is not ‘extrinsic’ to us, but in a certain way is ‘intrinsic’ to our own religion. With Judaism, therefore, we have a relationship which we do not have with any other religion.” ​ 2. The Jews are the beloved people of God. Secondly, echoing the words of St Paul in Romans 11:28-29, Vatican II taught that “the Jews remain very dear to God, for the sake of the patriarchs, since God does not take back the gifts he bestowed or the choice he made” (Nostra Aetate, 4; Lumen Gentium, 16).* ​ Subsequent Church documents and papal teachings illuminate the significance of this statement. No longer can the Church be viewed as ‘replacing’ Israel. Gone is the insidious ‘language of contempt’ whereby Jews were accused of being ‘Christ-killers’ rejected from God’s embrace. Rather, the Jewish people are recognised as God’s beloved, as a people in a living covenantal relationship with God who never reneges on divine promises. What is extraordinary is that, in the 1960s, in order to speak of the Jews as the beloved people of God, the Council Fathers had to reach back nearly two millennia to find an authoritative Christian text to ground their statement. This gives you some idea of how deeply entrenched were anti-Jewish attitudes and how ground-breaking the Vatican II teaching. Not since St Paul had official ecclesial documents spoken like this! The Council’s teaching has given rise to new challenges. A question for Christian scholars today is “the highly complex theological question of how Christian belief in the universal salvific significance of Jesus Christ can be combined in a coherent way with the equally clear statement of faith in the never-revoked covenant of God with Israel” (CRRJ, Gifts and Call, 2015). This is a profound question with which theologians continue to grapple. Meanwhile, affirmation of Jewish covenantal life can be consistently traced in official ecclesial documents in the decades since the Council. We see this most recently in the revised Vatican Directory for Catechesis issued (March 2020) which reaffirms that God’s covenant with the Jewish people “has never been revoked (cf Rom 11:28-29) and retains its validity” (n. 348). ​ 3. Rejection of antisemitism A third important statement of Vatican II was its rejection of antisemitism. In Nostra Aetate, 4 we read that the Church “decries hatred, persecutions, displays of antisemitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone”. Although this may strike Catholics as an ‘obvious’ thing to say, we need to be aware of the tragic legacy of Christian animosity towards Jews, and how confronting it is for the Church to face the fact that the Shoah (Holocaust) occurred in a Europe shaped by a long Christian tradition. The Shoah is not only part of Jewish history; shamefully, it is Christian history. Nazism, in itself, was not a Christian phenomenon; however centuries of church-sanctioned anti-Jewish attitudes helped to create the cultural conditions that allowed Nazism to emerge. Today the Church maintains an imperative to remember these diabolical events, recognising that overcoming antisemitism is not a finished task. Pope John Paul II spoke of an “enduring call to repentance.” No community can completely purge itself of two millennia of anti-Jewish influences in just fifty years. It takes time. And it requires vigilance towards the new guises under which antisemitism can reappear. ​ Engaging with ‘Living’ Judaism As the Church today applies the teaching of Vatican II, it urges its members to engage with “living Judaism”. In the Vatican’s phrasing, Christians “must strive to learn by what essential traits Jews define themselves in the light of their own religious experience” (Guidelines, 1974; Notes, 1985). This is an important statement. It exhorts Christians to stop presuming and to start listening to and learning from present-day Jews. The Jewish religion today is not the same as ancient Judaism. Just as Christianity has evolved since the time of Jesus, so has Judaism. We cannot simply read something in the Bible and presume to know what Jews today believe and practise. ​ All this affects how the Catholic faith is taught. In the voice of the Vatican, “The Jews and Judaism should not occupy an occasional and marginal place in catechesis: their presence there is essential and should be organically integrated” (Notes, 1985). The 2020 Directory for Catechesis re-echoes that catechesis “must pay special attention to the Jewish religion and to the themes of Judaism”. ​ Finally, through its many statements, the Church acknowledges that Christians and Jews both place their hope in a future known to God. With this comes a responsibility to stand shoulder to shoulder in the task of preparing the world for God’s kingdom of justice and peace. In that task alone, there is much to unite Christians and Jews for the sake of the world. ​ © Teresa Pirola, 2020. lightoftorah.net Reproduction for non-commercial use permitted with acknowledgment of website. ​ * The main Vatican II document usually cited with regard to Jewish-Christian relations is Nostra Aetate, the Declaration on the Church’s Relations with Non-Christian Religions (1965). Notably, two earlier conciliar documents—the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church and the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation— both contain paragraphs (e.g., nos. 16 and 14 respectively) that support the key theological articulation found in Nostra Aetate.

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WE REMEMBER A REFLECTION ON THE SHOAH PDF version Read More A Brief Overview of "We Remember" by the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews (CRRJ) Vatican Curia | 16 March 1998 ​ Context ​ We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah was issued 16 March 1998, fifty-three years after World War II, thirty-three years after Vatican II’s ground-breaking Declaration Nostra Aetate , and two years prior to the Great Jubilee of 2000. ​ This document was the Catholic Church’s attempt to reflect upon the terrible events of the Holocaust in order to “help to heal the wounds of past misunderstandings and injustices”.[1] Memory is significant here. By remembering and healing the past, a better future can be charted. By the time this Vatican document was published a number of local episcopal conferences and other Christian leadership bodies had already issued statements of contrition and re-commitment following the end of the war. The document’s proximity to the Great Jubilee is significant in view of Pope John Paul II’s programmatic vision that the faithful should “purify their hearts, through repentance of past errors and infidelities” [2] as preparation for entering the new millennium reconciled with God and neighbour. The subject matter of We Remember reflects a strong concern of this Pope and it may help a reader to be aware of his papal statements on issues relating to the Holocaust. Readability and Significance We Remember consists of five main sections. In less than four thousand words it takes the reader on a brief journey through a painful history. The language is accessible for a general audience. ​ Whilst the document broke some ground for its the time, it was controversial. Among both Christians and Jews there were those who considered it inadequate, arguing that it did not go far enough in naming Christian culpability; that it seemed to lay blame at the feet of nameless ‘sons and daughters’ of the Church in place of the Church itself shouldering responsibility, especially in view of the long history of Christian anti-Judaism which had a conditioning effect on European populations and which unwittingly aided the Nazi propaganda machine. The wartime record of Pope Pius XII was also a source of contention, exacerbated by scholars’ lack of full access (until recently) to the Vatican archives in this regard. A formal Jewish response to the document can be read here. ​ In response to criticism, Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy, who oversaw the publication of We Remember , reportedly made the point that the document should be viewed as an initial step in breaking ground on a highly sensitive issue, that its audience first had to be made aware of the subject before further lessons could be digested. We Remember is best read in the context of the Second Vatican Council and as part of a developing corpus of documentation emerging from the Catholic-Jewish dialogue up to the present day. It should be studied in the light of emerging Christian scholarship on the Holocaust where deep moral questions arise for the way Christians approach theological enquiry in a post-Auschwitz era. Content: A selection of key points ​ The tragedy of the Shoah and the duty of remembrance Section I states the fact of the crime of the Shoah : the murders and brutalities inflicted on an innocent people, simply because they were Jewish. ​ In saying that “no one can remain indifferent” to the Shoah , We Remember singles out the Church “by reason of her very close bonds of spiritual kinship with the Jewish people and her remembrance of the injustices of the past”. The first part of this sentence recalls Nostra Aetate , 4, as well as repeated papal statements affirming close spiritual ties between Jews and Christians – by now this point is firmly entrenched in Catholic teaching. The phrase “injustices of the past” refers to the long and tragic history of Christian antagonism towards the Jewish people, albeit expressed in an understated way. Says We Remember , memory of the past is integral to moving forward, for "there is no future without memory" (John Paul II, 11 June 1995). “History itself is memoria futuri .” Christians are asked to reflect on “the catastrophe” of the Shoah , and on the moral imperative that it never happen again. A plea is made to Jewish friends “to hear us with open hearts”. What we must remember This brief section has three key foci: ​ It must be remembered that Jews were massacred in an unspeakable way “for the sole reason that they were Jews”. There is a need to study the question of “why” the Shoah occurred. Important here is “moral and religious memory”, calling for Christian engagement. “The fact that the Shoah took place in Europe, that is, in countries of long-standing Christian civilization, raises the question of the relation between the Nazi persecution and the attitudes down the centuries of Christians towards Jews.” ​ Relations between Jews and Christians ​ Section III begins by tracing the emergence of anti-Judaism in Christian history, in its growing severity, including distorted “interpretations of the New Testament [which] have been totally and definitively rejected by the Second Vatican Council”. ​ By the 19th century, a more virulent form of antisemitism (more sociological and political than religious) was developing in European society. Fuelled by toxic forms of nationalist and pseudo-scientific theories about race, antisemitism grew to new levels under National Socialism in Germany. ​ The last third of section III is devoted to defending the wartime record of the German Church, the German Bishops, as well as Pope Pius XI and Pius XII, regarding their public opposition to Nazi racism. ​ Nazi anti-Semitism and the Shoah This section draws a clear distinction between the State-sponsored final solution of Nazi Germany and the anti-Jewish failings of Christian history. “The Shoah was the work of a thoroughly modern neo-pagan regime. Its anti-Semitism had its roots outside of Christianity and, in pursuing its aims, it did not hesitate to oppose the Church and persecute her members also.” ​ However, Christians played a role and the document broaches this painful subject with a question: “Did anti-Jewish sentiment among Christians make them less sensitive, or even indifferent, to the persecution launched against the Jews by National Socialism when it reached power?” The document refrains from answering this question directly, but rather details some of the complexities of the war period. “Any response to this question must take into account that we are dealing with the history of people's attitudes and ways of thinking, subject to multiple influences.” ​ The final third of Section IV admits that alongside those courageous men and women who resisted Nazism, “the spiritual resistance and concrete action of other Christians was not that which might have been expected from Christ's followers” and reiterates the Church’s repudiation of antisemitism, quoting Nostra Aetate , as well as Pope John Paul II. ​ "We deeply regret the errors and failures of those sons and daughters of the Church. We make our own what is said in the Second Vatican Council's Declaration Nostra Aetate , which unequivocally affirms: 'The Church ... mindful of her common patrimony with the Jews, and motivated by the Gospel's spiritual love and by no political considerations, deplores the hatred, persecutions and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews at any time and form any source.'” [We Remember, IV] ​ The Armenian genocide and other atrocities of the 20th century are also acknowledged and deplored. ​ Looking together to a common future ​ A final section looks to the future of Jewish-Christian reconciliation in accord with the vision set forth at Vatican II. This vision affirms the Jewishness of Jesus and the Jewish roots of the Church, and calls for love and respect for “our elder brothers” (a significant expression used by Pope John XXIII). We Remember expresses the Church’s deep respect and compassion for what the Jewish people have undergone and her “deep sorrow for the failures of her sons and daughters in every age”. Thus the document is deemed an act of teshuva (‘repentance’), for Christians are linked to one another in their sins as in their merits. The choice of this Hebrew term in a Catholic document is striking. A closing ‘call to action’ entails not mere words but “a binding commitment” to ensure that “the spoiled seeds of anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism must never again be allowed to take root in any human heart”; and to heed the memory of the dead as well as the testimony of living witnesses. ​ ********************************************************************* ​ The points above are a guide to the 1998 CRRJ We Remember , however nothing replaces a reading of the document itself. Access it here at the Dialogika online library (maintained by the Council of Centres on Jewish-Christian Relations and the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations of Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia). Quotations from 1998 We Remember have been accessed at the Dialogika website. ​ A Jewish response to We Remember can be viewed here. ​ [1] Pope John Paul II’s Introductory Letter, 12 March 1998. [2] Ibid. ​ ​ © Teresa Pirola, 2021. lightoftorah.net . Reproduction for non-commercial purposes permitted with acknowledgement of website. ​ ​