Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday marked the 60th anniversary of the Vatican document that revolutionized the Catholic Church’s relations with Jews, reaffirming the commitment to dialogue at a time of rising antisemitism amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Leo presided over a two-part interfaith commemoration of the anniversary: He first joined religious leaders from over a dozen faith traditions in an appeal for peace at the Colosseum, then presided over an evening event focused on the landmark document at the Vatican.

In the text, “Nostra Aetate,” Latin for “In Our Time,” the Catholic Church deplored antisemitism in every form and repudiated the “deicide” charge that blamed Jews as a people for Christ’s death.

The idea of Jewish collective guilt for the crucifixion had fueled antisemitism for centuries. The Vatican crafted the document repudiating it as the church reckoned with the role traditional Christian teaching had played in the Holocaust.

The document itself was issued in 1965, during the Second Vatican Council, the meetings that modernized the Catholic Church and revolutionized the way it related to other religions and the modern world. It has been credited with helping improve relations between Christians and Jews ever since.

In his comments Tuesday night, Leo said the document was historic, the first time the Vatican had provided the theological basis for the........

© The Times of Israel