Photo by Photosynthesis Studio

ATLANTA—The decades-old “dramatic transformation” between the Jewish people and the Catholic Church can serve as a model to overcome long-held divisions.  

But the effort must always be renewed.  

“You don’t make that change without maintaining it, without nurturing it, without furthering it,” said Rabbi Noam Marans, an official interfaith dialogue partner with the Vatican. “What we have here is a dramatic transformation that we are the guardians of, and we cannot assume that will be taken care of by somebody else.”   

More than 150 people gathered at Marist School on Jan. 21 to hear a panel conversation with Marans and Bishop Joel M. Konzen, SM, discussing the landmark Second Vatican Council document “Nostra Aetate” that reshaped relations between the two faiths.  

Bishop Konzen said, “Maybe slowly, maybe by dent of really difficult labor, but hopefully also by dent of education and common commitment” the affinity between members of the two traditions will “triumph over the forces of darkness.”

The independent Catholic school hosted the 60th celebration of Nostra Aetate—“the Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions”—that redefined the Church’s relations with Judaism, Islam and other world religions.  

“The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men,” stated the 1965 document.

The Church teaching formally rejected the charge of collective Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus and condemned antisemitism, addressing a history of centuries of violence against Jewish people.  

The Archdiocese of Atlanta and the local Jewish community share a longstanding history of cooperation, dating to the early 1960s. Leaders from both faith traditions helped organize a civic celebration in honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  

That spirit continued when the communities commemorated the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate in 2015 with a night of art and literature, showcasing artistic works that reflected the traditions of both faiths.  

Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer, OFM Conv., reacts to a question at a Nostra Aetate event hosted by the Bearing Witness Institute of Marist School, the American Jewish Committee of Atlanta and the archdiocese. He also addressed participants attending the January program. Photo by Photosynthesis Studio

In 2025, Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer, OFM Conv., joined a Jewish congregation on one of its holiest days to speak with the members and answer questions about faith.  

The Archdiocese of Atlanta and the American Jewish Committee, along with the Bearing Witness Institute for Interreligious and Ecumenical Dialogue at Marist School, sponsored the panel event.  

A shared belief in dialogue  

Brendan Murphy, a longtime Marist teacher and the founder of the Bearing Witness Institute, said Catholic bishops at the council wrote a “very brief but revolutionary text” in which the Church rejected its teachings that had caused immense harm over centuries.  

Murphy said the document is a “moral reorientation” that recognized how “distorted theology can contribute to very real human suffering.”  

He said a central message to the Catholic community and the wider world has been “a call to encounter rather than contempt and dialogue rather than denigration.”  

The gathering isn’t a celebration of what happened in Rome in 1965, but how the document shapes lives, he said.  

“It is instead a celebration of relationships. Relationships that have been built patiently over time, often through honest conversation and sometimes through very difficult reckoning. But always through a shared belief that dialogue always matters.”  

Archbishop Hartmayer said Nostra Aetate does not paper over differences among people of faith, but begins with an acknowledgement how “all people share a common origin in God and a common destiny”  

Instead, those differences require dialogue that leads to “bridges of understanding and paths of shared responsibility. Those bridges are urgently needed in our world today,” he said, quoting Pope Leo XIV.   

“May this gathering strengthen our bonds of friendship and renew our shared resolve to stand together,” said the archbishop, “especially in times of trial, as partners in faith, hope, and service to the common good.”