Discontinuity in the Teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. The Case of Nostra Aetate 4

Abstract

In this study, I describe the changes in the Roman Catholic attitude towards the Jews, taking the Amici Israel-case as my starting point. I show how the Hitler-regime and its persecution of the Jews resulted in a reconsideration of the Roman Catholic view on the Jews, Seelisberg, Switzerland (1947) being an important event. Next, I pay attention to the role the Jew Jules Isaac played in the change of the Roman Catholic positions and to his contacts with John XXIII, a pope who was very much sensitive to the fate of the Jews. Further, the preparation of the text on the Jews before and during the Council and the debates on it in aula are discussed in a detailed way. I conclude this paper showing that concepts such as continuity or discontinuity do not do justice to what happened in this case and suggest that the concept contextual normativity better explains the changes in the Roman Catholic attitude towards the Jews.status: publishe