Sixty years ago this week, on October 28, 1965, the declaration Nostra Aetate of the Second Vatican Council shattered one of the Catholic Church\u2019s most enduring prejudices. With Nostra Aetate, the Vatican formally repudiated the \u201cdeicide\u201d charge against Jews and deplored antisemitism in every form. The landmark declaration acknowledged that centuries of Church teaching \u2014 which cast Jews as Christ-killers \u2014 had fueled anti-Jewish hatred and helped lay the groundwork for the Holocaust.<\/p>\n
In the words of Pope Leo XIV, who succeeded Pope Francis in May, during the Vatican ceremony marking the anniversary, Nostra Aetate \u201ctakes a firm stand against all forms of antisemitism\u201d and remains \u201chighly relevant today.\u201d It was, and is, a promise of friendship in our time \u2014 a pledge that the Church would never again be silent or complicit in the face of Jew-hatred.<\/p>\n
Yet anniversaries are not only moments of celebration but also of reckoning. As we mark six decades since Nostra Aetate, the question must be asked: has the Church fully lived up to its grand words? Recent events suggest that this hard-won progress is being tested in unprecedented ways. A surge of global antisemitism linked to the war in Gaza \u2014 the very kind of hatred Nostra Aetate renounced \u2014 now challenges the Church to put its principles into practice. According to the Anti-Defamation League, antisemitic incidents in the United States hit a record high last year, with 9,354 reported cases, 58 percent of them connected to Israel, including chants, speeches, and signs at demonstrations criticizing Israeli policies.<\/p>\n
The Church\u2019s post-1965 reconciliation with the Jewish people, rooted in Nostra Aetate\u2019s rejection of antisemitism, remains one of modern Christianity\u2019s moral turning points, yet its legacy has proven fragile. Successive popes \u2014 John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis \u2014 deepened Jewish-Catholic relations.<\/p>\n
Francis was long viewed as a friend of the Jewish people. However, the Israel-Hamas war has brought this rapprochement to its most severe test in decades. Jewish leaders have accused Pope Francis of moral equivocation \u2014 condemning Israel\u2019s military response without explicitly denouncing Hamas, and embracing symbolic gestures perceived as politicized or biased toward Palestinians. The situation worsened when a papal letter quoted a verse historically used to demonize Jews, rekindling painful memories of Christian antisemitism. Despite Vatican clarifications, these missteps \u2014 occurring amid a global surge in antisemitic incidents \u2014 have cast a shadow over decades of interfaith progress and raised doubts about the Church\u2019s steadfastness in confronting antisemitism today.<\/p>\n
The passing of Pope Francis earlier this year and the election of his successor, Pope Leo XIV, offered a chance to reset this frayed relationship. Observers wondered whether he would prove more attuned to Jewish sensitivities or repeat the pattern of well-meaning but tone-deaf Vatican commentary. The early signs are mixed. Leo XIV has acknowledged the recent strains; at his installation in May, he welcomed Jewish leaders and affirmed the \u201cspecial relationship\u201d between Christians and Jews. On this week\u2019s Nostra Aetate anniversary, he lauded the 1965 declaration as \u201chistoric\u201d and \u201chighly relevant today,\u201d urging Catholics that \u201ceven in these difficult times, marked by conflicts and misunderstandings, it is necessary to continue the momentum of this precious dialogue of ours\u201d<\/p>\n
Such language, coupled with Leo\u2019s outreach so far, prompted cautious optimism from Jewish voices. \u201cMy impression is that he is very balanced\u2026 He made clear that continuing Nostra Aetate\u2019s legacy is a priority,\u201d said Dr. Karma Ben-Johanan, a Jerusalem scholar of Jewish\u2013Christian relations. She and others sense a greater sensitivity in Rome \u2014 perhaps a recognition that bridges badly need mending. Pope Leo\u2019s private audience with Israel\u2019s president and his strong condemnation of antisemitism signal a desire to rebuild trust.<\/p>\n
But his record has not been free of controversy. Pope Leo XIV has faced criticism from Jewish and Israeli observers for his vague and cautious statements about the Gaza war. His responses \u2014 condemning Palestinian suffering without denouncing Hamas and issuing broadly diplomatic remarks about \u201cboth sides\u201d and \u201cdiabolical intensity\u201d in the region \u2014 have been seen as evasive. Many argue that this ambiguity risks equating Israel\u2019s actions with those of a terrorist group and undermines the Church\u2019s moral clarity at a time of rising antisemitism.<\/p>\n
Still, there remains a strong desire from the Jewish side to rebuild dialogue and trust. \u201cNever since Nostra Aetate have the Jewish people been more in need of friends who commit themselves to combating antisemitism with every fibre of their being,\u201d appeals Rabbi Noam Marans of the American Jewish Committee, urging the Vatican to use its immense moral \u201cmegaphone\u201d to meet this moment. When Israeli mothers today fear for their children\u2019s safety not only from rockets in Ashkelon but from hate crimes in Paris or New York, Jewish communities understandably look to the Church for solidarity \u2014 not ambiguity. They recall that within living memory, Catholic silence or complicity enabled their darkest persecution.<\/p>\n
At this crossroads, the Catholic Church faces a choice. It can retreat into cautious neutrality, clinging to high-minded even-handedness while ancient demons reawaken. Or it can rediscover the courage of Nostra Aetate, which confronted Catholic failures and renounced the myths that once demonized Jews. No one is asking the Vatican to endorse every policy of the Israeli government. But to clearly name and condemn evil \u2014 such as the genocidal antisemitism of groups like Hamas \u2014 is not politics; it is moral duty. Pope Francis himself, on Nostra Aetate\u2019s 50th anniversary, insisted that attacks on Israel\u2019s legitimacy are a form of antisemitism. Yet in practice, that clarity wavered during the Gaza war, and the results have been painful.<\/p>\n
Pope Leo XIV\u2019s task is clear: to ensure that the lofty words of 1965 are matched by deeds in 2025. That means denouncing antisemitism unequivocally, whether it hides behind anti-Zionism or any other guise, and offering the Jewish people more than prayers \u2014 namely, the assurance that the Catholic Church will never again be complicit in their despair.<\/p>\n