The Roman Catholic document Nostra aetate (Latin: “In Our Time”) rejects the traditional accusation that the Jews killed Jesus Christ, affirms the validity of Judaism and Islam, and condemns antisemitism. Also titled “Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions,” Nostra aetate was promulgated in 1965 by Pope Paul VI during the Second Vatican Council (1962–65), an ecumenical council that was convened to foster spiritual renewal for the Roman Catholic Church and promote unity among Christians.
Nostra aetate in particular was drafted under the orders of Pope John XXIII, who had convened the council and was inspired by his experience as a former papal ambassador to the Muslim and Orthodox countries of Turkey and Greece and his friendship with Jules Isaac, a Jewish historian and survivor of the Holocaust.