Marie de Nazareth
To Jesus, through Mary
As the sacred synod searches into the mystery of the Church, it recalls the bond that spiritually ties the people of the New Covenant to Abraham's stock.
Thus the Church of Christ acknowledges that, according to God's plan of salvation, the beginnings of Christian faith and election are to be found among the Patriarchs, Moses and the prophets. The Church professes that all who believe in Christ - Abraham's sons according to faith (6) - are included in the same Patriarch's call, and likewise that the salvation of the Church is mysteriously foreshadowed by the chosen people's exodus from the land of bondage.
The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament through the people with whom God in His inexpressible mercy concluded the Ancient Covenant. Nor can the Church forget that she draws sustenance from the root of that well-cultivated olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild shoots, the Gentiles.(7) Indeed, the Church believes that by His cross Christ, our peace, reconciled Jews and Gentiles. making both one in Himself.(8)
The Church keeps in mind the words of the Apostle about his kinsmen: "theirs is the sonship and the glory and the covenants and the law and the worship and the promises; theirs are the fathers and from them is the Christ according to the flesh" (Rom 9:4-5), the Son of the Virgin Mary. She also recalls that the Apostles, the Church's main-stay and pillars, as well as most of the early disciples who proclaimed Christ's Gospel to the world, sprang from the Jewish people.
As the Holy Scripture testifies, Jerusalem did not recognize the time of her visitation,(9) nor did the Jews in large number, accept the Gospel; indeed not only a few opposed its spreading.(10) Nevertheless, God holds the Jews most dear for the sake of their Fathers; He does not repent of the gifts He makes or of the calls He issues - such is the witness of the Apostle.(11) In company with the Prophets and the same Apostle, the Church awaits that day, known to God alone, on which all nations will address the Lord in a single voice and "serve Him shoulder to shoulder" (Soph. 3:9).(12)
Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so great, this sacred synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies as well as of fraternal dialogues.
Of course, Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ.(13) Nevertheless, what happened in the Passion of Jesus Christ cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, alive then or now. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures. Everyone should mind in catechetical work or in the preaching of the word of God not to teach anything that does not conform to the truth of the Gospel and the spirit of Christ.
Furthermore, the Church's rejection of every persecution against any man is mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel's spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.
Besides, as the Church has always held and holds now, Christ underwent His Passion and death freely, because of the sins of men and out of infinite love, in order that all may reach salvation. It is, therefore, the obligation of the Church's preaching to proclaim the cross of Christ as the sign of God's all-embracing love and as the fountain from which every grace flows.
(6) Cf. Gal 3: 7
(7) Cf. Rom I 0: 17-24
(8) Cf. Eph 2: 14-16
(9) Cf. Lk 19: 44
(10) Cf. Rom 11 : 28
(11) Cf. Rom 11: 28-29; Conc. Vatican II, Dogm. Const. Lumen Gentium, AAS 57 (1965), p. 20.
(12) Cf. Is 66: 23; Ps. 65: 4; Rom 11: 11-32
(13) Cf. Jn 19: 6
II Vatican Council
Excerpt from the Declaration Nostra Aetate on the Church and the non-Christian Religions