The document of the Second Vatican Council, on which the modern Catholic doctrine of interreligious dialogue is based, Nostra aetate or Declaration on the Relation of the
Church with Non-Christian Religions was being written from 1960 to 1965. Pope John XXIII
entrusted the work to Cardinal Augustin Bea, S.J. The draft text of the document went through
four revisions. The Council Fathers first wanted the text to be a supplementary fourth chapter
to the document Decree on Ecumenism. Then they proposed it be a separate chapter in the
document Lumen Gentium. In October 1965 they voted that the text, which in its beginnings
spoke only of Jews, would finally define the relationship of the Church to non-Christian religions and would become an independent council document
|