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　　Wednesday of this week will be the fiftieth anniversary of one of the most remarkablemoments in interfaith relations in my lifetime, the Vatican document Nostra Aetate, whichtransformed the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and other religions, mostnotably with Judaism and Jews.

　　It was the result of the meeting of two remarkable men. One was the French- Jewish historianJules Isaac, who survived the Holocaust, but lost his wife and daughter in Auschwitz. After theWar he set himself to discover the roots of anti-Semitism, tracing it back to the early history ofthe Church. Isaac didn’t believe, nor should we, that the Holocaust, or anti-Semitism itself, wereinspired by Christianity. Hitler’s hate had quite different roots, and anti-Semitism predates thebirth of Christianity. But Isaac charted the tendency of early Christian texts to blame Jewscollectively for the death of Jesus and to see Judaism as a failed relationship between God andhumanity. He called this “the teaching of contempt.”

　　Isaac’s work was read by Pope John XXIII, a man of courage who, during the war, had savedthousands of Jewish lives. In June 1960 the two men met, and the Pope resolved to re-examinethe Church’s attitude to other faiths, Judaism in particular. Thus began the process that led toNostra Aetate, though John, who died in 1963, didn’t live to see its completion. It transformedrelations between the two faiths, so that today, after centuries of estrangement and hostility,Jews and Catholics meet not as enemies but as cherished and respected friends: testimonythat even in the face of religious difference, broken relationships can be mended and ancientwounds begin to heal.

　　Rarely has this been more important than now, when religiously-motivated violence is bringingchaos and destruction to great swathes of the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.Christians are suffering; so are Muslims; and so are Jews.

　　What we need now is a new and broader Nostra Aetate, bringing together all the great faiths ina covenant of mutual respect and responsibility. We need leaders from every religion publicly todeclare that much of what’s being done today in the name of faith is in fact a desecration offaith and a violation of its most sacred principles.

　　It took the Holocaust to bring about Nostra Aetate. Let’s not wait for another crime againsthumanity and God to bring us to our senses. For though we are different, we are each inGod’s image. We honour Him by honouring all humankind.