Sixty years after the Second Vatican Council issued Nostra Aetate—the declaration that reshaped Catholic relationships with Jews, Muslims, and other religious communities—the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies (ICJS) convened a panel to reflect on its legacy and urgency today.
The event, Nostra Aetate at 60, featured Heather Miller Rubens, Ph.D., ICJS Executive Director and Roman Catholic scholar; Rabbi Katja Vehlow, Ph.D., Director of Jewish Life at Fordham University; and Syed Atif Rizwan, Ph.D., Director of the Catholic-Muslim Studies Program at Catholic Theological Union, speaking online on Oct. 30.
Rubens opened with a striking reminder: each panelist’s role exists because of Nostra Aetate.
“Our three roles would not have existed before this document,” she said. A Muslim scholar at a Catholic seminary, a rabbi at a Jesuit university, and an organization like ICJS devoted to interreligious learning all testify to how profoundly the declaration transformed institutional life.
Revisiting a Transformative Text
Issued in 1965, Nostra Aetate urged Catholics to “reject nothing that is true and holy” in other traditions and to approach religious difference with humility. Yet, the panelists agreed, it marked a beginning, not an endpoint.
Rizwan highlighted how revolutionary it was for the Church to affirm shared commitments with Muslims—belief in one God, reverence for Abraham, Jesus, and Mary. Still, he noted, the document omits mention of the Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammad. “Why would those two things be excluded? Those two things are central to Muslim life,” he said. “To not have those things gives pause.”
He also cautioned that Nostra Aetate’s call to “forget the past” risks silencing those who need to name historical harms. “The best way to move forward, as in any relationship, is to talk through what the harm has been as a way of healing and then moving forward, rather than just saying, ‘Well, it’s just water under the bridge and let bygones be bygones.’”
Vehlow saw similar tensions in the text’s treatment of Judaism. Nostra Aetate repudiated anti-Jewish teaching, affirmed Judaism as a living faith, and rejected the charge of deicide. The document’s recognition of a “spiritual connection” between Jews and Christians and its insistence that Judaism is “a living…entity” remain powerful, she said.
“This was a huge paradigmatic shift and I think we are still on it,” she added.
Yet, she noted, its framing remains partly supersessionist and tends to interpret Judaism through Christian categories. Some formulations would not necessarily be recognizable to her Jewish students—for example, describing the Exodus as a foreshadowing of the salvation of the Church. For genuine dialogue, she argued, “it’s really important… to see the person [and tradition] on their own terms.”
The Ongoing Work of Relationship
Rubens invited the panelists to reflect on how Nostra Aetate’s spirit continues through their work. Rizwan, the first full-time Muslim faculty member at his Catholic institution, said some students “are shocked to learn that I’m Muslim. They’re shocked that they’re at a graduate school of theology and ministry that they’re learning from a Muslim. ” His teaching involves both sharing Islamic tradition and challenging anti-Muslim bias when it appears.
For Vehlow, Fordham’s first Jewish chaplain, visibility itself is transformative. “Very often, I’m not only the first woman rabbi people meet, but I’m the first rabbi people meet,” she said. Her work centers on relationship-building—supporting Jewish students while helping the campus navigate tensions shaped by global conflict and rising bias.
Hope, Discomfort, and the Path Forward
Asked about the future of interreligious engagement, both panelists emphasized honesty and courage. For interreligious work to be real, Rizwan said, people must speak authentically—even about painful topics like Palestine and Israel. If we self-censor, it erodes dialogue’s authenticity.
Vehlow added that Nostra Aetate itself grew from courageous postwar relationships. Celebrating it today means reinvesting in hope. “It means being present at the table—even when it’s really uncomfortable,” she said.
Rubens closed by underscoring the discussion’s heart: authentic interreligious friendship demands deep listening, truth-telling, and a willingness to be changed. Sixty years later, the work Nostra Aetate began remains unfinished—and profoundly necessary.