In this encouraging renewal of the Church’s dedication to social justice, education, and dialogue, Notre Dame de Sion sees its identity reflected and its mission both reaffirmed and urgently needed.
In Dilexi Te (“I have loved you” – Rev 3:9), Pope Leo sets care for vulnerable people as a central priority. This first Apostolic Exhortation of his pontificate places love at the centre of social transformation, with a calling to respond to inequality and exclusion with compassion rooted in the Gospel. The exhortation urges believers to see justice not as an abstract ideal, but as love made tangible and expressed in many forms of concrete solidarity with the marginalised, including challenging the structural causes of poverty.
Sion sisters are constantly engaged in social justice advocacy and action, especially in Australia, the Philippines and Canada.
The Jubilee of the World of Education honoured educators and institutions as builders of community and hope on the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the Conciliar Declaration Gravissimum educationis.
In his Apostolic Letter, Drawing New Maps of Hope, released during the jubilee week, Pope Leo states that education of people affected by poverty is “not a favour but a duty”. Echoing Dilexi Te’s call to put love into action, he encourages the Church to open doors where education remains a privilege and to seek innovative paths for inclusion.
A delegation from seven French-speaking schools in the international Notre Dame de Sion network met with Rome-based sisters and gathered in St Peter’s Square with around 15,000 other pilgrims engaged in education. Equipped with an audio system, the group translated the Pope’s words into French in real time, and left inspired by Leo XIV’s invitation to make interiority, unity, love and joy the key elements of their mission to their students.
Nostra Aetate opened the Church to dialogue with Judaism and other religions, not as a strategy, but as a response to divine love that recognises the image of God in every person. Six decades on, the declaration still challenges the Church to build bridges of dialogue in a divided world.
Some NDS sisters lived through the exciting developments of Vatican II. Throughout October, contemplative and apostolic sisters gave thanks and reflected together and with others on all that has happened over the past sixty years of interfaith dialogue. Some sisters organised and took part in activities and events related to Nostra Aetate’s 60th anniversary.
Each of the October milestones highlights a dimension of Notre Dame de Sion’s enduring mission to foster justice, peace and love. Together, Dilexi Te, the jubilee of education and the Nostra Aetate anniversary testify to a Church attentive to the signs of the times, that calls for both contemplation and action. With eager hearts, the sisters of Notre Dame de Sion embrace the work ahead, guided by a charism that has inspired generations.
As usual, all the NDS study centres ran programmes designed to strengthen interfaith understanding.
The Sion Centre for Dialogue and Encounter in London, which hosts weekly online talks featuring Jewish and Christian thinkers, marked the anniversary with two notable sessions. Fr Adrian Graffy led a discussion on the theme God of all people – celebrating 60 years of Nostra Aetate, while Dr Debbie Weissman addressed the question Has there been a Jewish response to Nostra Aetate?
Also in London, Sr Maureen Cusick read from the Book of Revelation at the gathering A Journey into Hope: Celebrating 60 Years of Nostra Aetate. The event marked the launch of an updated English translation of Nostra Aetate, with a new introduction by Fr Michael Barnes SJ. The text is available on the Diocese of Westminster’s website, and sisters in the UK are distributing printed copies.
Nostra Aetate was also remembered at West London Synagogue’s Saturday service, where Sr Maureen was invited to read a letter on behalf of Archbishop Nichols of Westminster.
In Warsaw, Sr Kasia Kowalska attended a conference on Nostra Aetate’s contribution to dialogue, peace, and harmony. Earlier in the year, she had spoken at the conference Biblia przed I po Nostra Aetate (The Bible before and after Nostra Aetate), organised by the Catholic Academy of Warsaw.
In New York, Sr Celia Deutsch gave a presentation at the latest meeting of the United States Conference of Bishops and the National Synagogue Council entitled Nostra Aetate at 60: The Document, its Reception and Challenges for Present and Future.
Sr Thérèse Fitzgerald was involved in preparing a suite of resources for Nostra Aetate offered by Bat Kol International and is now facilitating local study and discussion groups in Dublin on the continuing relevance of Nostra Aetate.
Sion Associates in Curitiba supported the Bat Kol International initative by translating some of the material into Portuguese, joining BKI’s online events, and reflecting on and signing the Declaration on Jewish-Christian Relations Also in Curitiba, the Colégio Nossa Senhora de Sion marked the anniversary with a post on Instagram.
In São Paulo, Sr Cristiane Dos Santos helped organise a three-day symposium called Simpósio internacional e inter-religioso sobre os 60 anos da declaração Nostra Aetate (International and interreligious symposium on the 60th anniversary of the Nostra Aetate declaration) as a part of her work with the Catholic-Jewish Dialogue Commission of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB). Different moments of the event were held in different Christian, Jewish and Muslim locations. On the second day, at the Mesquita Brasil mosque, the CNBB and the Archdiocese of São Paulo announced the creation of a new commission for Catholic-Islamic dialogue.
In Sydney, Sr Mary Reaburn attended the annual meeting of the Archdiocese of Sydney Commission for Ecumenism and Inter-religious Relations with leaders of the Jewish community, at which the topic was Nostra Aetate. The opening prayer was led by Sr Mary and Rabbi Benjamin Elton; they read Ecclesiastes 3:1-9 first in Hebrew then in English.
In Melbourne, Sr Mary spoke about Nostra Aetate in a series of parish talks about the Church’s relationship with Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, and taught on the declaration at both Catholic Theological College and at Yarra Theological Union.
She also contributed to the Rosalie Hanley NDS conversation on the theme: Nostra Aetate in our time – An Invitation to Encounter, and she was interviewed for the Big Tent podcast episode Bridges, not walls: Nostra Aetate at 60.
The Australian Sion Formation and Mission Team conducted an online seminar, Muslim-Christian Relations in Our Time in the Light of Nostra Aetate, with Rev. Prof. Daniel Madigan SJ. And Sion Associate Mark Walsh was invited to give a presentation on Nostra Aetate and Christian Antisemitism at Temple Beth Israel.
In Toronto, Sr Lucy Thorson and Sion Associates Murray Watson and Hector Acero Ferrer remembered Nostra Aetate at the 50th anniversary of the organisation Christian-Jewish Dialogue of Toronto, of which they are Board members.
In Iași, Sr Iuliana Neculai organised a Jewish-Christian symposium, the first of its kind in the country, on the roots and meaning today of Nostra Aetate in Romania.
In Jerusalem, sisters participated in numerous events, including a conference organised by the Diocese of Jerusalem and another developed through collaboration between Notre Dame Jerusalem at Tantur and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. They also took part in a session of talks and prayers to commemorate the anniversary, organised by the Elijah Institute and Praying Together in Jerusalem.
In Paris, Sr Isabelle Denis held a sharing session of the extensive material she has developed over the years on Nostra Aetate and Vatican II.
In the Philippines, sisters attended a conference called Bridges of Hope and Healing: Nostra Aetate and the Shared Call to Tikkun Olam.
Sisters in Rome represented the Congregation at related Vatican events. At the Pontificia Università Gregoriana and the Vatican Aula Paolo VI, Sr Ania Bodzinska was happy to meet so many people of different religions, to touch the thinking of others, and learn where they are in the interfaith journey.
A word and an image stayed with her afterwards. The word was “esteem”, which denotes not only respect but also high regard – a nuance that’s subtle yet significant in the world today. The image was that of Nostra Aetate as a key that was placed in the keyhole sixty years ago. “The door is just slightly open now,” she said. “It’s up to us to muster the courage to keep pushing it wider and wider.”
