The Vatican has released a major new document marking 60 years since the Second Vatican Council’s declaration Nostra Aetate, calling Catholics to deepen interreligious dialogue while maintaining a clear Christian identity and fidelity to Jesus Christ.
The document, A Journey of Hope: Sixty Years of Interreligious Dialogue and Fraternity in the Light of the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate, was published Sept. 16 by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity and the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.
According to the Vatican document, Pope Leo XIV approved the note during an audience with officials of the three dicasteries on June 22 and ordered its publication. It is signed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Cardinal Kurt Koch and Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad, along with the secretaries of their respective dicasteries.
The document revisits the Church’s approach to non-Christian religions since Nostra Aetate was promulgated on Oct. 28, 1965. According to the new note, the Council’s declaration opened “a new chapter in the history of relations among Catholics, Jews, and believers of other faiths and spiritual traditions.”
Citing Nostra Aetate itself, the Vatican recalls that the Catholic Church “rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions” and calls the faithful to regard aspects of other religious traditions with “esteem and respect.” The new document presents respect and esteem as foundations for authentic dialogue while also emphasizing religious freedom, including the freedom of Christians living as minorities in other countries.
At the same time, the Vatican explicitly rejects the idea that interreligious dialogue requires Catholics to abandon or weaken the Church’s claims about Christ.
According to the document, Catholics must resist both an exclusive approach that overlooks dialogue and an approach that relativizes Christian identity. The note says dialogue must remain faithful to Jesus Christ, “the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” and states that it must avoid “relativism and syncretism.”
The document is particularly explicit when discussing Judaism. It affirms the continuing theological significance of God’s covenant with the Jewish people while stating that this does not mean Christians believe there are “two paths to salvation.” Rather, the Vatican reiterates that “the Church teaches that Christ is the one and only Redeemer.”
The note also addresses evangelization and proselytism, an issue likely to draw close attention from Catholics seeking to understand how interreligious dialogue relates to the Church’s missionary mandate.
According to LifeSiteNews, the Vatican dialogue is now “a part of the Church’s evangelizing mission.” The document describes authentic Christian witness as sharing Christ without coercion and quotes previous papal teaching that speaking of Christ through witness or words should respect the freedom and dignity of the person hearing the Gospel.
Later, while outlining its vision for the future, the document argues against approaching people of other religions primarily from a defensive or adversarial posture.
“The defensive entrenchment in one’s own position and the view that proselytism is the only way to engage with the other no longer make sense in a world that increasingly resembles an interconnected and constantly evolving global village,” the Vatican states.
The note instead calls for what it describes as an attitude that is “open, benevolent, and courageous,” while maintaining the real differences among religious traditions.
The Vatican also makes clear that its vision of dialogue is not an attempt to merge religions. “It is not a matter of founding one great world religion in which all beliefs are flattened,” the document states. Instead, it says the goal is to build a society capable of accepting religious differences while seeking peaceful coexistence.
The document traces this approach through the pontificates of St. Paul VI, St. John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Francis and now Leo XIV.
According to the note, Pope Leo has continued this trajectory by emphasizing peace, justice and truth in dialogue. The document cites his October 2025 remarks describing followers of other religions as “travelling companions on the path of truth” while calling Christians to “honor differences” and affirm humanity shared across religious boundaries.
The Vatican also points to the practical results it attributes to six decades of dialogue, including relationships among religious leaders, educational and humanitarian projects and cooperation in response to wars and other crises. At the same time, the document acknowledges continuing obstacles, including religious fundamentalism, persecution of Christians, political manipulation of religion and Catholic concerns that dialogue can lead to doctrinal relativism.
On persecution, the document states that Christians continue to suffer at the hands of extremist religious groups in various parts of the world and declares that “every persecution on religious grounds is always a violation of human dignity.”
The note ultimately presents interreligious dialogue not as a replacement for Christian evangelization but as a dimension of the Church’s mission that must be carried out without coercion, relativism or abandonment of Catholic identity.
“For Christians,” the document states, dialogue is “not, therefore, a matter of renouncing the truth but of proclaiming it in a manner befitting the Gospel: with esteem, listening, and charity.”
Concluding its reflection on the six decades since Nostra Aetate, the Vatican calls Catholics and followers of other religions to become “builders of bridges, not walls,” while recognizing the spiritual riches found in other traditions and working together for peace and human dignity.
The document closes by describing the Church’s interreligious engagement as an unfinished “journey of hope,” calling believers to continue that path while remaining rooted in their own faith.
The full Vatican document, A Journey of Hope, is available from the Holy See.
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