The Vatican has published this Wednesday, September 16, an extensive note on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Nostra aetate, the declaration of the Second Vatican Council on the Church’s relations with non-Christian religions. The document reviews six decades of interreligious dialogue and proposes guidelines for its development in the coming years.

The note, titled A Path of Hope. Sixty Years of Dialogue and Interreligious Fraternity in Light of the Conciliar Declaration Nostra aetate, has been jointly prepared by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity, and the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue. Leo XIV approved the text during an audience granted to the prefects and secretaries of the three bodies on June 22 and ordered its publication.

The document begins with the promulgation of Nostra aetate on October 28, 1965, and recalls that the declaration initially arose from reflection on the Church’s relationship with the Jewish people after the Holocaust, before expanding its scope to other religions.

The three dicasteries describe the conciliar document as a «profound change» in the way the Church understands and expresses its relationship with believers of other religions and recall the conciliar affirmation that the Church «rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions.»

The new note also links interreligious dialogue with the defense of religious freedom. In this context, it expressly states that this requirement leads to demanding «the same freedom for Christians in countries where they are a minority.»

A significant part of the document is dedicated to relations between Christians and Jews. The note recalls the Jewish roots of Christianity and maintains that Jewish-Christian dialogue cannot be reduced to diplomatic relations or mutual knowledge.

The text reaffirms that «God’s covenant with the Jewish people is irrevocable,» but immediately clarifies that this does not mean that for Christians there are «two paths of salvation» nor that the covenant with the Jewish people constitutes a path of salvation parallel to the Christian one.

«The Church teaches that Christ is the only redeemer,» the document states.

The note also recalls the condemnation of antisemitism contained in Nostra aetate and acknowledges that conflicts in recent years in the Middle East have tested some of the bridges built over the last six decades between Jews and Christians.

The document dedicates another section to the relationship between interreligious dialogue and the Church’s evangelizing mission. Reviewing the magisterium of Saint John Paul II, it recalls that dialogue with other religious traditions «is part of the Church’s evangelizing mission.»

At the same time, it warns against an interpretation that would lead to relativizing Christian identity and recalls fidelity to Jesus Christ as «the way, the truth, and the life.»

For this reason, the note maintains that dialogue must avoid both «relativism» and «syncretism» and develop from a clear awareness of one’s own religious identity.

The document also affirms that dialogue does not imply «renouncing the truth,» but rather proclaiming it «in an evangelical way: with esteem, listening, and charity,» and places it as a dimension of the Church’s evangelizing mission.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, said the cross is not a sign of defeat or death but an expression of God’s love and the victory of life, urging Christians in the Holy Land to make it a way of life rooted in love and self-giving.

Pizzaballa made the remarks while presiding over a Mass on the eve of the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross at Christ the Redeemer Church in Taybeh, a predominantly Christian town in the West Bank.

“The cross is our victory, and it is the victory of love,” Pizzaballa said.

He added that Christ “chose to enter into the suffering of the cross out of love for us.” The patriarch stressed that Christians are “people of the cross” and that the sign defining their identity should be reflected in the way they live and in their relationships within their families, parishes, and wider communities.

“We are called to live according to the logic of the cross,” he said.

Pizzaballa noted that Christians do not need to seek out suffering, because they are already surrounded by suffering in many forms. Yet, he said, such experiences can become an opening for God’s presence in their lives.

The celebration took place as Taybeh continues to face the repercussions of attacks by Israeli settlers, restrictions on movement and access to essential services (Palestinians living in the West Bank require Israeli permits to enter Jerusalem), declining employment opportunities, and continued emigration — all pressures that have placed additional strain on the town’s residents.