The State of Catholic-Jewish Relations on 60th Anniversary of ‘Nostra Aetate’

The Israel-Hamas war, which began with the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre and quickly escalated to deadly armed conflict in Gaza, has strained relations between Catholic and Jewish leaders. Following the initiation of the conflict, Pope Francis repeatedly questioned Israel’s use of force against Palestinian civilians and pondered whether Israel’s warfare amounted to a “genocide.” The late Pope was particularly invested in the welfare of Gaza’s tiny Christian community and called Holy Family Church, Gaza’s only Catholic church, where hundreds of Christians and a few Muslims have found shelter for two years, almost every day. On July 17, the church was hit by what the Israel Defense Forces called an errant IDF tank shell. Three Christians were killed and 15 persons were injured, including Father Gabriel Romanelli, the parish priest. While Jewish leaders are grateful for his efforts to fight antisemitism and his outreach to Jewish communities, many believe Francis should have spoken out more forcefully against Hamas and other Islamic terror groups and that he was overly critical of Israel’s military actions in Gaza. The American Jewish Committee, for example, called the war Israel’s “defensive fight for survival.” These differing views about the war have caused a cooling of relations between Jewish and Catholic faith leaders. Yet both parties are still deeply committed to interfaith dialogue and finding common ground, largely thanks to the paths of reconciliation and communication fostered by Nostra Aetate, whose 60th anniversary is being marked this week at the Vatican. The declaration on the relation of the Church with non-Christian religions is an official declaration of the Second Vatican Council, promulgated on Oct. 28, 1965, by Pope Paul VI. The declaration acknowledges the rights of different faiths, including Islam, but especially affirms the continuing covenant between the People of Israel and God, absolves Jews of the death of Jesus, and says that antisemitism and anti-Jewish persecution violate Christian values. Rabbi David Rosen, former international director of interreligious affairs at the American Jewish Committee, said the past two years have tested the relationships between the Catholic Church and the Jewish world, but that the fallout “certainly could have been a lot worse.” “There is a certain amount of trust and of course open communication that’s built up over the years since Nostra Aetate, and the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pizzaballa, is an example of that,” Rosen said, citing the patriarch’s strong outreach to the Holy Land’s Jews and Muslims. “His understanding of the [complexity of the] situation is remarkable, considering the fact that his flock is overwhelmingly Palestinian.” And despite the Jewish world’s “unhappiness” with some of Pope Francis’ pronouncements related to Israel and the war before his death in April, “generally speaking, there has been much more understanding from the Catholic world than from other parts of the Christian world,” Rosen said. ‘Transformation’ Rabbi Noam Marans, interreligious affairs director for the American Jewish Committee, said that “there is no overstating the transformation that Nostra Aetate represents for Catholic-Jewish relations.” At the same time, “challenges remain, and they have sometimes peaked, like in the aftermath of Oct. 7,” when criticism against Israel from some Church officials “did not always seem fair” to many Jews. Marans said the world is experiencing an “unprecedented era of antisemitism resurgence” where there is often a “blurring” of antisemitism and anti-Israelism. But thanks to Nostra Aetate and other subsequent developments, including the Lutheran rejection in the 1980s of the anti-Jewish teachings of Martin Luther, Jews and Christians today have a long-established channel to communicate their concerns and disagreements. “There has never been a period in Nostra Aetate’s 60-year history where major issues did not need to be addressed, and the last couple of years were no exception,” Marans said. “Many countries in the world have found it difficult to understand the difference between Hamas’s horrific terror attack, which killed people of many faiths, including Christians, and Israel’s war for survival. The Catholic Church made judgements about what was going on in Gaza that were sometimes lacking in proper context regarding what it all was in response to.” Alongside his criticism of the scope of Israel’s military actions, Pope Francis met not only with the families of the hostages, but with a delegation of wounded IDF soldiers. This approach of expressing concern and empathy towards the sufferings experienced by victims on both sides of the Gaza conflict has been emulated by Pope Leo XIV since his election in May. “I express my profound closeness to the Palestinian people in Gaza, who continue to live in fear and to survive in unacceptable conditions, forcibly displaced — once again — from their own lands,” the Holy Father said Sept. 17 at his weekly general audience. And this month, Vatican News disclosed that he had instructed the Office of Papal Charities to send 5,000 doses of antibiotics to children in Gaza. On Oct. 5, Pope Leo denounced the global rise in antisemitic hatred. Two days later, on the anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre, he condemned it as “a terroristic attack,” while also lamenting the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have been killed since then during “a painful two years.” Building Bridges Marans said the fruits of Nostra Aetate are everywhere, including in the visits that contemporary popes now make to synagogues, Israel, and the Auschwitz death camp. “The pope has an unlimited megaphone; his visuals are the most influential in public understanding,” he said. “A pope standing in front of the Kotel, the Western Wall, even placing a note inside a crack, sends a message. These are indelible images” that promote Catholic solidarity with the Jewish people and counter antisemitism. In an essay that appeared in the Jewish News in England at the time of Pope Francis’ death, Elizabeth Harris-Sawczenko, an interfaith adviser and former director of the British Council of Christians and Jews, said building bridges was a top priority for Pope Francis. Right after Pope Francis’ death, Harris-Sawczenko said, her social-media feed was full of photos of Jewish leaders meeting with the Pope, “including my own picture when I met him in the 50th year of Nosta Aetate. It is abundantly clear how much Pope Francis valued dialogue and his relationship with the Jewish world.” In February 2025, Harris-Sawczenko wrote, “the Pope demonstrated his personal commitment to peace between Palestinians and Israelis,” granting a public audience to peace-builders Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon. Both have lost close family members due to the conflict. “Pope Francis embraced both men together as a sign of his commitment to reconciliation,” she wrote. “He emphasized the need for a shared future, acknowledging the suffering of both Israelis and Palestinians and calling for a peaceful resolution of the conflict.” Prior to Nostra Aetate, “no one could ever have imagined that the Catholic Church, embodied in the Pope, would embrace the Jewish people in this manner, and yet this remarkable change happened in our time,” Harris-Sawczenko commented at the conclusion of the essay. “It strikes me that this ground-breaking change in Christian Jewish relations, is a timely and powerful paradigm and reminder that reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis and an end to conflict is possible in our time as well.” Register staff contributed to this report.