Nostra aetate
Nostra aetate receives its final council vote and papal promulgation
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗The declaration repudiated the collective charge against the Jews without ever using the explosive word — "deicide" appears nowhere in it.
2,221 to 88
Meeting in St Peter's Basilica on 28 October 1965, the Second Vatican Council gave Nostra aetate its final approval by 2,221 votes to 88. Pope Paul VI approved and promulgated the declaration in union with the council fathers that day.
The Holy See's 2015 anniversary bulletin reports one null ballot; a peer-reviewed historical study reports three. Both agree on the substantive tally.
This was the culmination of a conciliar process, not a papal text issued without a vote.
What the promulgated text says
It stated that Jesus's Passion could not be charged indiscriminately to all Jews then living or to Jews of the present, and that Jews should not be portrayed as rejected or accursed by God.
It condemned hatred, persecution and antisemitism against Jews, rejected discrimination based on race, colour, condition or religion, and encouraged dialogue and cooperation with adherents of other religions.
It is not read correctly as saying no Jewish authorities were involved in Jesus's death; its operative claim is about collective and inherited guilt.
It did not start out this wide
The initiative traces to Jules Isaac, the French Jewish historian whose wife and daughter were killed in the Holocaust, and who at 81 brought Pope John XXIII a documentary dossier urging reform of Christian teaching about Jews. John assigned the material to Cardinal Augustin Bea's Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity.
What began as a proposed statement about Jews survived attempts to remove it, abbreviate it and fold it into another council text. Cardinal Cicognani directed that it become a broader declaration, and Yves Congar helped draft the additions while preserving the rejection of collective guilt.
The final document addressed Hinduism and Buddhism, devoted a section to Islam, and then treated the Church's relationship with the Jewish people.
Sources
Researched 24 Aug 2026 4 sources not yet audited
How this was checked
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What the sources leave uncertain
- The Holy See’s 2015 anniversary bulletin reports one null ballot, while a peer-reviewed historical study reports three invalid ballots. Both agree on the substantive tally of 2,221 in favor and 88 opposed.
- The declaration never uses the word “deicide.” Its operative language rejects indiscriminate or inherited collective guilt rather than issuing the title’s modern shorthand verbatim.