Vatican Calls for Renewed Interreligious Dialogue Amidst 60-Year Anniversary of Nostra Aetate

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Faith Desk

In Short: Vatican issues a new note calling for a renewed approach to interreligious dialogue, emphasizing peaceful coexistence and a 'new ethic of dialogue'.

VATICAN CITY — Sixty years after the Second Vatican Council’s declaration Nostra Aetate, the Vatican is calling for a renewed approach to interreligious dialogue aimed at fostering peaceful coexistence without erasing religious differences. The document, titled “A Journey of Hope: Sixty Years of Interreligious Dialogue and Fraternity in the Light of the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate,” was published on September 16.

The note calls for a renewed pedagogy of dialogue, beginning with formation in seminaries, theological institutes, and pastoral programs. It emphasizes the importance of knowledge of religions, the history of interreligious relations, guidelines for dialogue, religious literacy, and an understanding of contemporary cultural and geopolitical issues.

According to the document, it is time to promote a new ethic of dialogue: a culture of complexity, flexibility, and friendship. It states, 'In stark contrast to those rigid attitudes that seek to resolve conflicts by force, it is time to promote a new ethic of dialogue.

The Vatican also repealed provisions introduced by Pope Francis in March 2021 that reduced the salaries of cardinals and Vatican employees as a cost-saving measure during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing an 8% increase for employees in certain salary grades.

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“Today, in the face of those who foment divisions and stir up conflicts, believers of different traditions — and above all their leaders — while remaining aware of their irreducible differences, are called to seek, with clarity and hope, the conditions necessary for peaceful coexistence,” states a new joint note from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, and the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.
The text reviews the teaching of successive popes on interreligious relations, looks back at the path traveled since Nostra Aetate was promulgated in 1965, and turns to the challenges facing dialogue today.
“It is no longer sufficient to proclaim the importance of dialogue; it must now be lived, providing the faithful with the tools to participate in it in an informed, critical, and serene manner,” the document states.
The Vatican published the papal decree, signed earlier in the month, on Sept. 14, Pope Leo’s birthday, a day on which the pope also issued a decree ordering the construction of a new building in Vatican City State to house the excess holdings of the library and the Vatican Apostolic Archive.
“Now they can be brought to an end, in the certainty that the institutions of the Holy See and Vatican City State will continue, through different means, their commitment to ensuring economic sustainability,” Pope Leo wrote.
A version of this story was originally published by Vatican News and distributed through a partnership with OSV News.
Employees of the Holy See, the Vatican Governorate and other related institutions classified in salary grades C and C1 — namely the heads and secretaries of dicasteries — received an 8% reduction.
In a Note published on September 16, the Holy See commented on its ecumenical efforts of the past six decades and welcomed the “shift in perspective” which has developed between religious leaders, resulting in a “culture of dialogue and a ‘culture of encounter.’” This must continue with renewed impetus so that fraternity may be built up between the various creeds, the Note “A journey of hope” stated.

Sources

The Catholic Heraldlink