3. It cannot be denied that the Church's mission, though coming from the divine will and gifted and guided by divine grace, is carried out by men, and so will never be perfect because of the possible behavior of Christians: their erroneous judgments on facts and men and methods, and the activities that the centuries have shown to contradict the mission itself; their betrayal of the original mission, self-interested view of the mission, lack of respect for the interlocutors and their cultures, and blindness to values in other religions (cf. above, I, B, 3).

4. Vatican II has explicitly examined these facts, recognized prevarications and insufficiencies, excluded what does not correspond with the original biblical mission, urged new methods and behavior more in line with the actual situation of the Church and men of today. She has more than once, especially in the declaration Nostra Aetate, expressed her esteem for the values of other religions and the urgent need to know them and dialogue with them (cf. above).

II. Unwarranted Proselytism is Rejected

A. UNWARRANTED PROSELYTISM

1. Many Christians, especially during and after the last war, and with the conciliar experience, have awoken to the fact that after two millennia of misunderstanding, particularly of contempt, and moral, spiritual and physical persecution, the attack on the very existence of the Jewish people as such and because they were Jews, with deliberate diabolical intent (in which Christian responsibility cannot be passed over), make it urgent that a fresh study be made, not only of the destiny, permanence and mission of the Jewish people, but also of general anthropology. Previous contacts with the Jews, and now in a renewed climate the developed possibilities of collaboration in social fields, open up new perspectives that should not be neglected.

2. On October 28, 1965, the Second Vatican Council promulgated the declaration Nostra Aetate on the relations between the Catholic Church and non-Christian religions, in which section 4 is dedicated to relations with the Jews. It is of great importance as the first document of its kind, and its contents definitively approved, though still open to improvement, have given rise to an irreversible movement.

3. On December 1, 1974, this same Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews published its first document to implement Nostra Aetate 4, entitled Guidelines and Suggestions for Implementing the Conciliar Declaration "Nostra Aetate" No. 4. After an introduction this document deals with: Dialogue, Liturgy, Teaching and Education, and Joint Social Action. We refer to this document and to Nostra Aetate 4, as the only complete context. With this, then, a new phase in the relations and action of the Church towards the Jews has opened, geared above all towards eliminating, as far as it is possible today, the numerous and persistent misunderstandings in this field.

4. Here we wish to make a few points on the difficult question of proselytism that has alienated and still alienates so many people.

5. Already, on May 1, 1970 the Joint Working Group between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches had published their Third Official Report with two annexes: I. Report on the Common Activities of the Joint Working Group, and II. Study Document on Common Witness and Proselytism. It is Appendix II which interests us most. Though dealing with proselytism among various Christian groups, it gives by analogy a good basis for treating every kind of proselytism, with accurate analyses and a new working method. We refer to this document also because for various reasons it had not the effect its importance deserved, and up to now has not had sufficient influence (cf. Service d'Information published by the Secretariat for Christian Unity, No. 14, Avril 1971/II, pp. 14-24, especially pp. 19-20).

6. Ecumenical experience of the past few years has among other problems brought to the surface the most serious of all, that is, proselytism among Christian Churches themselves and then in relationship to other religions and religious groups.

7. Vatican II itself, especially with its Declaration on Religious Liberty, Dignitatis Humanae, and then in the decree on ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio, in the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, and in other documents, has studied the problem of proselytism, which ruins relations with other religious groups.

8. First we must distinguish clearly between mission and "Christian witness" (cf. above, on the mission to the world), and "proselytism".

9. "Witness" signifies a variety of realities. From Scripture itself derive various terms that reveal particular aspects of the proclamation of the Gospel in word and act, for example "evangelization", "kerygma", "announcement", "message", "apostolate", "mission", "confession", "testimony", and others. For the above-mentioned Joint Working Group, the most suitable term seemed that of "witness". By this is understood the permanent action in which the Christian or a Christian community proclaims the action of God in history, and tries to show how with Christ has come the "true light that enlightens every man" (Jn 1:9). Hence, the whole of life: worship, responsible service, proclamation of the Gospel, all, in brief, that is done by Christians under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit for the salvation of men and to gather them together in the one and only body of Christ (cf. Col 1:18; Eph 1:22-23), tends only towards the gaining of eternal life, which is to know the living God and his messenger Jesus Christ (cf. Jn 17:3). But today even Christian witness leads to possibilities of common action in the limitless sphere of "social" action, where there are endless opportunities for collaboration, so that Christians show in their deeds the face of Christ the Servant (cf. e.g. Unitatis Redintegratio 12; Guidelines and Suggestions IV).

10. Such witnessing that Christians of various denominations tend now to regard as common, runs up against the problem of religious liberty. This expression "religious liberty" is not used here with its full biblical significance (e.g. Rom 8:21; cf. also Gal 5:1). It concerns the primordial inalienable right of physical persons and the community to enjoy social and civil liberty in religious matters. Every person and community has the right to be exempt from constriction on the part of other persons or groups or any human power, whether cultural, economic, political or religious. No person or community should ever be forced for any motive whatever to act against his convictions and his conscience, nor should he ever be prevented from manifesting his faith by teaching, worship, publications, social action. Here we refer to the Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations (1948) especially article 18.

11. The term "proselytism" in certain linguistic, cultural or denominational contexts has assumed, when unqualified, a pejorative sense. In other contexts, however, when "proselytism" has kept its original meaning of zeal for the propagation of the faith, it should always be qualified, and in the unacceptable sense it should be specified with expressions such as "unwarranted proselytism" or similar terms that indicate clearly reprehensible attitudes and ways of acting that are to be rejected.

12. Here by "unwarranted proselytism" we understand an attitude and action that stands outside Christian witness. It includes, in fact, anything that forces and violates the right of every person or human community to be free from external and internal constrictions in matters of religion, or else embraces ways of proclaiming the Gospel that are not in harmony with God's ways when he invites man to respond freely to his call and to serve him in spirit and in truth (cf. Evangelii Nuntiandi 39).

13. Therefore, the Church clearly rejects every form of unwarranted proselytism. Excluded, then, is every kind of testimony and preaching that in any way becomes a physical, moral, psychological or cultural constraint on the Jews, as individuals or as a community, that could in any way destroy or even diminish personal judgment, free will, full autonomy to decide, either personal or communitarian.

14. Excluded also is every kind of disqualifying judgment, contempt or prejudice that could be levelled against the Jewish people or individual Jews as such, or against their faith, their worship, their culture in general and their religious culture in particular; against their past and present history, their existence and the meaning of their existence. Excluded also are odious types of discussion, especially those harmful forms already condemned by Nostra Aetate 4 and by Guidelines and Suggestions, which try to exalt the Christian religion or Christianity as such by discrediting Jewish religion and Judaism, whether past or present.

15. We are reminded also of the rejection of any action that aims at changing the religious faith of the Jews, whether in groups, minorities, or individual persons, by making more or less open offers of protection, legal, material, cultural, political and other advantages, using educational or social assistance pretexts. Particularly excluded is any such action or behavior directed towards children, old people, the sick, or adolescents still searching for their place in society. Still more is excluded every kind of threat and coercion even when it is indirect or concealed. Liberty of conscience as an inalienable right of the human person and human groups, should therefore be guaranteed from every possible attack and coercion at every level, exterior and interior, physical and moral.

16. Although the times and methods of forced conversion of Jews, of obligatory catechesis and compulsory preaching imposed by the surrounding Christian majority have irreversibly ceased, and indeed have been rejected and deprecated, nevertheless there remains in the religious press and Christian behavior the ever-present latent danger of pressure exercised on individuals or groups of Jews. In a contradictory and blameworthy manner, "conversion" is still expected of them, while at the same time we ourselves are not prepared to strive after "conversion of heart" to God and our brethren.

17. Today, in fact, it is openly acknowledged in the Church, as Vatican II has repeatedly and insistently stressed, that "conversion" understood as the passage from one faith or religious denomination to another is included in the inalienable statute of liberty of religious conscience, as an intangible process in which there is interaction between divine grace and man's response. Indeed no "conversion" is authentic if it does not result in a spiritual deepening in the religious consciousness of the one who, never without distress, takes such a step.

18. For this reason, the temptation to create organizations of any kind, especially for education or social assistance, to "convert" Jews, is to be rejected. On the contrary, we should encourage every effort to gain greater knowledge of the history of Israel, beginning with the Bible, and to explore in depth the existence, history and mission of Israel, her historical survival, her election and call, her privileges recognized in the New Testament (cf. again Rom 9:4-5; 11:29), in the light, if one is a true Christian, of God's message of love and mercy brought by Jesus Christ in the Spirit of God, never failing to listen to what the Jews themselves say (cf. below, on dialogue: Guidelines and Suggestions, Introduction, 5).

19. All this is openly expressed, without mental reservations, in the series of official Church texts (cf. above). Thus should the works be visible and glory be given to the Father (cf. Mt 5:16), so that men may finally discover the face of their brother, bearer of the one common image and likeness of the Omnipotent Lord, who is kind and a rewarder of men (cf. Gen 1:26-27).

B. NEW CHRISTIAN ATTITUDE

1. Once more we recall the need the Church has to bear witness, to announce and carry out her mission, as outlined above. This is to be understood and performed with the explicit Christian biblical proclamation (cf. Evangelii Nuntiandi 22; 29), without ever being tempted to diminish this proclamation (cf. Evang. Nun. 32), and with neither ambiguity nor obscurity (cf. Evang. Nun. 32). This operation is carried out solely in view of the Church's goal which is the glory of the One God, who is in his turn the unique salvation of mankind. Lumen Gentium has set forth clearly for all Christians the theocentric and salvific purpose of the People of God in this world (cf. all Lumen Gentium II).

2. The gift of Christian faith, hope and charity cannot be hidden, but by its works all should perceive the divine Glory, with the Christian awareness that every man who adores the One God is the object of the grace of the Spirit of God, and is not concerned with mere human success.

3. The Catholic Church, therefore, aware of her mission, appears today renewed in spirit and attitude. She is prepared to trust men openly, as she is ready to receive them in actual fact. Her sons desire to be "servants of truth" (Evangelii Nuntiandi 78) and they want to carry out their Christian mission for pure love (Evang. Nun. 79).

4. The already perceptible renewal in action, as has been recalled above, is destined to grow and become more universal, deep and accelerated in the coming years. On the level of organisms set up by the Church for relations with other religions, it is possible to grasp the real intentions of the Church herself. The grassroots will be more and more vitally influenced.

III. The Catholic Church and Dialogue

1. Among the most important "novelties" in the Catholic Church today, emerge very clearly the will and attitude of "dialogue" whether with other Christian churches, or the adorers of the God of Abraham (Jews and Muslims), or with the followers of other world religions and -- with the necessary distinctions -- even with atheists. This will of the Church was set out clearly after the pioneers had done their work in Vatican II assemblies, and it was summed up by Paul VI in his first encyclical, Ecclesiam Suam (1964). Study and action have brought it to what is now an advanced stage. The principles for initiating dialogue were already set down in detail in Nostra Aetate 4, and then more analytically and practically in Guidelines and Suggestions, especially in the introduction and paragraph I on dialogue.

2. Basic presuppositions for dialogue are respect and acceptance of the "other" in his intangible human, cultural, historical, spiritual and religious reality.

3. Decisive for the development of dialogical awareness between Christians have been the substantial contributions of Jewish thinkers (above all Martin Buber). Their assiduous frequentation of the Bible and hassidic spirituality showed and deepened the meaning of faith in a personal God, creator and savior, from whom alone comes the dignity of the human subject and the reality of his ontological relation with the "other", the community and God.

4. This aura of interpersonal relationships of which the Hebrew Bible is full is not absent in the Christian sections of the Bible itself; in fact it becomes universalized, describing every interhuman relationship in cogent terms of fraternity and service. To respect another man's conscience, above all if it is weak, to carry his burden, feel oneself his debtor, accept him in his existential condition, to meet his deepest desires, respond to his demand for growth and affirmation, all these are categorical imperatives of New Testament morality, which bring dialogue into the very order of existence and daily behavior.

5. It is evident, however, that in such imperatives there is an implicit will to testify and communicate, which is not abstract and doctrinal but very concrete, which does not take the form of dictating or conquest, but is response and participation. It offers men through existential experience the specific contribution of the Christian being. This is to obey the invitation we read of in the New Testament: "Always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you, gently, with respect and a sincere conscience" (1 Pet 3:15-16).

6. In this way dialogue becomes one of the main types of communication of the Church with the men of our time. Indeed, it has been noted authoritatively that dialogue is the way of communication par excellence of adult society. Hence it is neither betrayal nor disguise of the essential constitutive mission of the Church and the whole people of God to bear witness to the Glory of God in the world, "to sanctify the Name". Dialogue co-exists, however, with other forms of communication in the Church, such as the permanent evangelization of herself, the proclamation, catechesis, pastoral activity (see above) and mission of evangelization in the strict sense, that is, directed to the building up of a new community of adorers and glorifiers of God in spirit and in truth. But dialogue is essentially an action of giving and receiving, of attentive listening and full response, total respect and generous offering, the whole already expressed in existence before being uttered in words (see above). It is quite clear that this is carried out and developed on various levels that extend from a "thaw" in relationships to sympathy, to deepened knowledge and collaboration in common aims and objectives. Among these last, many practical questions necessary in the social and international fields can be usefully stated and resolved in common dialogued agreement. Hence a long trajectory has begun in which exchanges and interaction should be assiduous, and a clear vision of reciprocity and intercommunication (partage, sharing).

7. Dialogue, to be sincere, demands authentic self-discipline. Every temptation to exclusivism must be eliminated as also any imperialism or self-sufficiency. On the other hand there must be fidelity and dedicated personal searching, avoiding any form of relativism and syncretism that would try artificially to combine irreconcilable elements. Once the spiritual identity of the one and the other is guaranteed, there must be mutual esteem and respect (theological as well), and the conviction that every growth and bettering in the spiritual field comes about with the other's contribution. In this process it sometimes happens that dialogue with the other helps to discover new dimensions and valencies of one's own faith, and above all it teaches how to live it in humility and docility of spirit, looking to the "riches God has given to men" (Ad Gentes 11).

8. A knotty problem inherent in dialogue is the question raised by Paul VI in his discourse on the opening of the Synod of Bishops (September 29, 1974): "How can we reconcile respect of persons and civilizations and sincere dialogue with them . . . with the universalism of the mission Christ entrusted to the Church?" On this point, existence and experience can offer sincere, realistic words and deeds. In general the evangelical message has no intention of destroying what is valid and typical in the religious experience of men of all faiths. It is presented with various biblical images, among others, that of grafting. As such, it does not alienate nor depersonalize, but confers a new dimension that restructures all that has gone before. Besides this, it demands of Christians at the same time conversion and breaking off, while teaching that it is difficult to foresee how there can be peaceful confrontations and separations, restructuration without triumphalism, unless in the knowledge that "he who wants to save his life will lose it, and he who loses it will save it" (cf. Mk 8:35).

9. The central intuitions of other religious faiths may in their turn enrich the Christian, offering him fresh possibilities of expression, arousing in him valencies and potentialities that were formerly latent. But this can come about still more in contact with the Jewish tradition and its exegetical, liturgical and mystical treasures, its religious and philosophical thought.

10. If this is true of other religions in relationship with Christians, how much more is it with the Jewish religion, to which Christians are and remain united by so many unbreakable ties. For this reason, of all dialogue, that with the Jews is and remains for Christians one of singular and exemplary value. Moreover, when Christians enter into dialogue they take up a new attitude, made up mainly of the will and capacity of listening to the Jews who want to speak of themselves and of their vision of reality, and letting themselves be taught, wanting to learn with a grateful heart. Thus will be avoided the harm, even involuntary, of trying to understand Judaism by interpreting it through the projection of categories alien to it.