Pope urges greater interfaith collaboration

Pope Francis marks the 50th anniversary of the turning point in the Catholic Church’s relations with Jews and people of other faiths by calling Wednesday for greater interfaith collaboration in the face of religious extremism.

Francis devotes his usual Wednesday general audience to explaining to the Catholic faithful in St. Peter’s Square the importance of the “Nostra Aetate,” or “In Our Time” declaration, which revolutionized the church’s relations in particular with Jews.

The statement was one of the most important documents to emerge from the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings that brought the church into the modern world. It said Christ’s death could not be attributed to Jews as a whole, recognized the shared spiritual patrimony between Christians and Jews and decried all forms of anti-Semitism.

Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists are in the VIP seats in the piazza and are treated to a meet-and-greet session with the pope after the general audience ends. The World Jewish Congress has a particularly large delegation, given that its leaders decided to hold their annual conference in Rome to coincide with the anniversary.

In his remarks, Francis says the declaration had transformed Catholic-Jewish relations from “indifference and opposition to collaboration and good will. From enemies and strangers we became friends and brothers.”

He laments that the rise of terrorism had fomented suspicion and condemnation about religion in general. He says that while no religion is immune from fundamentalists, the world must look instead at the “positive values” that religions promote, especially in caring for the neediest.

“We can walk together, taking care of one another and of creation,” he says.

— AP