Finding nuance in Vatican’s Jewish-Catholic relations ‘Reflection’

Following the Vatican's recent release of its latest document on Jewish-Christian relations, the takeaways for most mainstream media were manifested in headlines making such pronouncements as, "Vatican says Catholics should not try to convert Jews," or "Jews don't need Christ to be saved." But advocates and scholars who have worked to foster Jewish-Catholic relations for decades have more nuanced perspectives on the new document and the history that preceded it.

On the 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking Nostra Aetate declaration, the Vatican's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews published a text titled, "For the Gifts and the Calling of God Are Irrevocable: A Reflection on Theological Questions Pertaining to Catholic-Jewish Relations on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of 'Nostra Aetate' (No. 4)." At the core of the new document, experts say, is the Church's rejection of both replacement theology and the notion that the covenant of the Jews with God has been negated.