Save the Date / Rome – October 27-29, 2025

Towards the Future:
Re-thinking Nostra Aetate Today

International Conference under auspices of
Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue
Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews (CRRJ) – Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity
 

Sixty years after its promulgation at the Second Vatican Council, the declaration Nostra Aetate is still a pivotal tool not only for interreligious dialogue and the Theology of Religions, but also for civil coexistence. Today the need arises not only to celebrate its importance and relevance but also to reconsider it in light of theological developments, new interreligious encounters, and a changing political, social, religious environment since 1965.

Thus the Declaration deserves to be ‘rethought’, taking into account the needs and rapidly evolving dynamics of today’s world. Rethinking Nostra Aetate involves reimagining how it might be ‘rewritten today’, in a different historical context and in the face of new complexities and religious pluralities. Religious traditions previously considered of minor impact have now gained greater significance, while entirely new challenges have appeared on the horizon of contemporary societies.

This international conference, to be held in Rome 27 to 29 October 2025 at the Pontifical Gregorian University, goes beyond a historical study of the Declaration to understand how it can serve as a hermeneutical tool for the present. The conference will highlight what Nostra Aetate can offer to the faithful of other religious traditions, how it can interpret new contexts that have emerged, and how it may be updated and redefined for our world today.

Organizers
Gregorian Centre for Interreligious Studies
Cardinal Bea Centre for Judaic Studies

Scientific Committee
Ambrogio Bongiovanni, Massimo Gargiulo, Adnane Mokrani, David Meyer, Adele Valeria Messina, Paolo Trianni
 

"So much has been done but so much remains to be done.
So many words have been said but there have also been so many silences.
The path indicated by Nostra Aetate is still highly relevant today and,
as the Declaration states, even today we are urged to recognize,
preserve and advance all spiritual, moral
and socio-cultural values found in religions."

(Card. Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot - In memoriam)