Sometimes Rome publishes a document so useful that a traditionalist scarcely needs to editorialize.
On September 16, three Vatican dicasteries jointly released A Journey of Hope, commemorating sixty years of Nostra Aetate. The Dicasteries for the Doctrine of the Faith, Christian Unity and Interreligious Dialogue all signed it.
Leo XIV personally approved it on June 22 and ordered its publication.
The document tells us that Vatican II produced a “profound change” in the Church’s understanding of other religions.
It calls followers of false religions our “travelling companions on the path of truth.”
It describes interreligious dialogue as a “theological locus where the Holy Spirit wishes to be heard through the encounter with the other.”
It speaks of the “sacred texts” of various religions.
It calls for a “shared search for truth.”
Then, near the end, comes this beauty:
“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.”
And the conclusion tells Catholics to move forward sustained by God’s grace “and the spiritual treasure of religious traditions.”
There it is.
Sixty years after Nostra Aetate, Rome has finally produced something close to a progress report.
The experiment worked.
Just perhaps not in the way Catholics were once taught to understand the mission of the Church.
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