As we approach the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the seminal declaration of how the Catholic Church regards other faiths, we find ourselves challenged by a new but no less troubling set of global issues which make a reaffirmation of the principles of the document immensely significant.
Today, as we travel together to the Vatican for a historic audience with the Pope, at which we will discuss some of these challenges, we will restate the urgent and profound need for collaboration, mutual understanding and empathy between our communities and beyond.
Pope John Paul II embraces Rome’s chief Rabbi Elio Toaff at the end of a joint ceremony at a Synagogue in Rome, 1986 Photo: AP
In the early part of the 20th century, the Good Friday prayers included the petition that the “perfidious Jew” might be converted to “the truth”. Today that same prayer beseeches God for “the Jewish people, first to hear the word of God, that they may continue to grow in the love of His name and in faithfulness to His covenant.”