Nostra aetate

Before his death in 1963, Pope John XXIII wrote a statement which he intended to be read aloud in all Roman Catholic Churches of the world on a fixed date:[8] We are conscious today that many many centuries of blindness have cloaked our eyes so that we can no longer either see the beauty of Thy Chosen People nor recognize in their faces the features of our privileged brethren.

[10] Roncalli, more so than his predecessors, was favourably disposed to such a suggestion; previously as the Archbishop Apostolic Delegate to Turkey, he had had a long relationship with Jewish communities and since being raised to the Papacy in 1958, had ushered in a period of "openness to the world" (what was called giovanissimo).

[20][21][18] As part of this, Bea also agreed to meet with Abraham Joshua Heschel of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and Max Horkheimer of the Frankfurt School in November 1961 to discuss new Church approaches to the Jews.

Much of the controversy over the actual text of Decretum de Iudaeis, was based on innovationary interpretations of Romans 11, which was used as justification for the line "it would be an injustice to call this people accursed, since they are greatly beloved for the sake of the Fathers and the promises made to them."

[25] This new interpretation of Romans 11 had been developed by Karl Thieme (a longtime correspondent of John M. Oesterreicher, one of the main SECU periti and drafters under Bea), a pioneer in Catholic-Jewish interfaith dialogue since the late 1930s and a contributor to Gertrud Luckner's Freiburger Rundbrief.

[26] While the Jewish schema was off the agenda for the First Session of Vatican II, the issue was not put to rest, as liberals, starting with the actions of Cardinal Achille Liénart made a strong early showing to direct the general course of the council.

[12] In 1963, a controversial play was released by the German writer Rolf Hochhuth called The Deputy, which popularised a theme of insinuating Pope Pius XII's "indifference" to Nazi Germany's mass killing of Jews during World War II.

"[33] Journalist Joseph Roddy alleged—in a 1966 Look Magazine article about the debate about Jews during the Second Vatican Council[34]—that this prayer was a fabrication by Malachi Martin, one of the periti who worked under Cardinal Bea, a Jesuit priest who was known to be critical of Catholic hierarchy, and published his critiques under a wide number of pseudonyms.

Roddy claimed two unidentified persons were one and the same person—a "young cleric-turned-journalist" and a "Jesuit of Irish descent working for Cardinal Bea ... who was active in the Biblical Institute"—he figuratively named as Timothy O'Boyle-Fitzharris, S.J.

In his 2007 book Spiritual Radical: Abraham Joshua Heschel in America, Edward K. Kaplan confirmed that Martin cooperated with the American Jewish Committee during the Council "for a mixture of motives, both lofty and ignoble.

[32] In addition to this, Paul VI was due to visit the Holy Places in East Jerusalem (then held by the Kingdom of Jordan) on 4 January 1964, whereby he would be meeting with Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople, with the ecumenical goal of mending the schism between Catholicism and Orthodoxy.

During Paul VI's visit to East Jerusalem, he travelled briefly through what was the State of Israel but was bogged down defending the record of Pius XII in light of The Deputy and made a speech hoping for Jews to convert to Christianity.

[32] While there, Maximos V Hakim, the Archbishop of Jerusalem from the Melkite Greek Catholic Church passed the Pope a document purporting to show "a slow but deliberate process of de-Christianization" initiated by the Israeli government.

[32] According to Edward Kaplan, the author of Spiritual Radical: Abraham Joshua Heschel in America, 1940-1972, the AJC had secured a secret “mole” or "double-agent" within Bea's Secretariat, an eccentric Jesuit priest, Malachi Martin.

[44][32] He warned about relativism and even modernism, laying out a dialogue with the world which was still directed towards the ideal of conversion of non-Catholics, but on a practical level advocated cooperation for defending "religious liberty, human brotherhood, good culture, social welfare, and civil order.

[32] The other group, consisting of Cardinals Richard Cushing of Boston, Giacomo Lercaro of Bologna and Paul-Émile Léger of Montreal (supported by Bishops Nierman, Daem, Jaeger, Pocock and O'Boyle) proposed instead that the new draft should be accepted, to get its foot in the door, but amended to cover the deicide issue and an explicitly condemnation of what they called "persecutions and injustices" against Jews throughout the ages, to the present day.

[32] Two Americans, Bishop Leven and Archbishop O'Boyle, took the most radical position on the topic and proposed the document should repudiate any hope of Jewish conversion to Christianity, flirting with themes of universal salvation and dual-covenant theology respectively.

Paul VI intimated that he would take into consideration concerns, but also wanted to go more slowly, holding that radical steps would confuse and alienate the Catholic faithful in places like Italy, Spain and Latin America.

[32] At a meeting held on the same day as Frings’ audience with Paul VI, the conservative grouping the Coetus Internationalis Patrum under the Presidency of Archbishop Geraldo de Proença Sigaud met with Cardinal Ruffini in attendance to discuss what they should do next.

[32] Bea hoped that Paul VI would be favourably disposed to this, with his upcoming visit to Bombay in the Republic of India, as a sympathetic comment on Hinduism was also included, alongside generic statements against "discrimination."

Cicognani delayed for eight days as the end of the Third Session was approaching and proposed a maneuver, wherein the three "natural" parts of the document would be voted on individually; Hinduism and Buddhism as the first, Islam as the second and then the more controversial and keenly contested section on Judaism as third.

Firstly, Luigi Maria Carli, the Bishop of Segni (a historically important diocese close to Rome) and member of the Coetus Internationalis Patrum wrote an article entitled, La questione giudaica davanti al Concilio Vaticano II in his diocesan magazine in February 1965 that affirmed the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church on the matter: namely, that adherents of Rabbinic Judaism at the time of Christ and to the present day, bore guilt for the trial and crucifixion of Christ[32] and that "judgment of condemnation by God" hung over Judaism.

[32] Most significant of all was the reporting in the New York Times by their Rome-correspondent Robert C. Dotty, that Paul VI had turned the document over to four doctrinal "consultants", to make it not contradict Sacred Scripture and to mollify Arab opinion.

Cardinal Bea was visiting New York that week and denied these claims, stating that it was still under the SECU and he sought to clear up any misunderstandings with Morris B. Abram of the American Jewish Committee about the Passion Sunday and Bishop Carli controversies.

[32] While this was taking place, the Maronite President of Lebanon, Charles Helou had an audience with the Pope and consequently, due to rumours which reached across the Atlantic, the Vatican Press Office made statements saying that the declaration remained unchanged.

[32] A number of significant events took place that year, which garnered media attention: in October 1965, Paul VI became the first Pope to address the United Nations calling for “No more war, war never again.” While visiting the United States, at a Mass attended by 40,000 people at the Yankee Stadium in New York City (with millions more watching on television), Paul VI quoted John 20:19 from the Gospel of John which states "the disciples were bolted for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood before them and said "Peace be to you!"."

"[32] While the form of the final document to be put to the floor at the Fourth Session of the Second Vatican Council had been disappointing to Shuster and Lichten of the AJC and B’nai B’rith respectively, Higgins convinced them that it was better to "settle for what they could get.

The most significant departure in the document from previous approaches was that "this sacred synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies as well as of fraternal dialogues."

mentions: "In short, although Muslim worship, which includes a flat denial of Christ’s divinity, is not in itself fitting, God-pleasing, or salvific in character, the object of that defective worship—that is, the Being toward whom it is directed—is nevertheless the true God, imperfectly understood, as distinct from a disguised demon or a nonexistent figure of myth or legend.

[66] On the fiftieth anniversary of the document's release, Sayyid Syeed, the national director of the Islamic Society of North America's Office for Interfaith and Community Alliances, pointed out that Nostra Aetate was released during the 1960s civil rights movement in the United States, at a time when Islamic centers and student groups were being founded on university campuses, and from these humble beginnings the "Catholic church acted as a big brother" in its understanding of a religious minority, a sentiment that has continued since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 when the Church opened its doors to them amidst growing Islamophobia.