Cardinal Koovakad: Vatican II’s ‘intuition’ on interreligious dialogue has become part of Church’s structure
September 17, 2026
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CWN Editor's Note: The prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue said in an interview that the dicastery and its predecessor bodies have “transformed a conciliar intuition into a permanent structure of the Curia and of the Church’s mission.”
Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad described Nostra Aetate (1965), the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, as an “institutional and theological mustard seed.”
“We have moved from attitudes of rejection, mistrust, or simple ignorance to lasting relationships of friendship among religious leaders, shared educational and social projects, and common declarations in the face of wars and humanitarian crises,” said Cardinal Koovakad, who also discussed the importance of “clarity regarding one’s own identity: dialogue is neither relativism nor syncretism.”
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