英国新闻听力 各宗教应该互相尊重（在线收听）

Wednesday of this week will be the fiftieth anniversary of one of the most remarkable moments in interfaith relations in my lifetime, the Vatican document Nostra Aetate, which transformed the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and other religions, most notably with Judaism and Jews.

It was the result of the meeting of two remarkable men. One was the French- Jewish historian Jules Isaac, who survived the Holocaust, but lost his wife and daughter in Auschwitz. After the War he set himself to discover the roots of anti-Semitism, tracing it back to the early history of the Church. Isaac didn’t believe, nor should we, that the Holocaust, or anti-Semitism itself, were inspired by Christianity. Hitler’s hate had quite different roots, and anti-Semitism predates the birth of Christianity. But Isaac charted the tendency of early Christian texts to blame Jews collectively for the death of Jesus and to see Judaism as a failed relationship between God and humanity. He called this “the teaching of contempt.”

Isaac’s work was read by Pope John XXIII, a man of courage who, during the war, had saved thousands of Jewish lives. In June 1960 the two men met, and the Pope resolved to re-examine the Church’s attitude to other faiths, Judaism in particular. Thus began the process that led to Nostra Aetate, though John, who died in 1963, didn’t live to see its completion. It transformed relations between the two faiths, so that today, after centuries of estrangement and hostility, Jews and Catholics meet not as enemies but as cherished and respected friends: testimony that even in the face of religious difference, broken relationships can be mended and ancient wounds begin to heal.

Rarely has this been more important than now, when religiously-motivated violence is bringing chaos and destruction to great swathes of the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Christians are suffering; so are Muslims; and so are Jews.

What we need now is a new and broader Nostra Aetate, bringing together all the great faiths in a covenant of mutual respect and responsibility. We need leaders from every religion publicly to declare that much of what’s being done today in the name of faith is in fact a desecration of faith and a violation of its most sacred principles.

It took the Holocaust to bring about Nostra Aetate. Let’s not wait for another crime against humanity and God to bring us to our senses. For though we are different, we are each in God’s image. We honour Him by honouring all humankind.

本周三是我一生中不同宗教信仰之间的关系最重要的时刻五十周年纪念日。梵蒂冈文件《教会对非基督宗教态度宣言》改变了罗马天主教堂和其他宗教之间的关系，尤其是与犹太教和犹太人之间的关系。

这是两位伟人之间会晤的结果。其中一位是法国犹太历史学家艾萨克，他从犹太人大屠杀中幸存下来，但是却在奥斯维辛集中营中失去了妻子和女儿。战争后，他亲自寻找反犹太主义的根源，追溯到该教堂的早期历史。艾萨克不相信，我们也不应该相信，反犹太大屠杀或者反犹太主义是由基督教徒发起的。希特勒的憎恨有着完全不同的根源，反犹太主义在基督教出现之前已经存在。但是艾萨克追踪到，早期基督教条文谴责犹太人集体导致耶稣的遇难，认为犹太教是上帝和人类之间关系失败的产物。他称这是“藐视的教义”。

教皇约翰二十三世阅读了艾萨克的作品。他是一位有勇气的人，战争期间，他拯救了数千名犹太人的性命。1960年6月，两人会晤，教皇决心重新审视天主教堂对待其他宗教信仰的态度，尤其是对犹太教的态度。因此开启了整个过程，直至《教会对非基督宗教态度宣言》出炉。然而，教皇于1963年去世，并未见证这一文件的完成。这一宣言改变了两种宗教信仰之间的关系，今天，经历几个世纪的疏远和敌对，犹太人和天主教徒不再是仇敌，而是互相珍惜，互相尊重的朋友：这表明，即使面临不同的宗教信仰，破裂的关系也可以修复，古老的伤口也可以愈合。

这一点对于现在来说尤为重要。当今社会，宗教引起的暴力给中东，沙哈拉沙漠以南和亚洲带来了混乱和破坏。基督徒们正在遭受痛苦，穆斯林和犹太人也是如此。

我们现在需要的是新的，更广泛的《教会对非基督宗教态度宣言》，团结起所有伟大的信仰，订立共同尊重和承担责任的契约。我们需要每一个宗教的领导人公开宣布，我们今天以宗教的名义所做的一切实际上都是亵渎信仰，违反其最神圣的原则。

历经了残酷的犹太人大屠杀才换来《教会对非基督宗教态度宣言》。我们不要等到对人类和上帝的另一次重大罪恶才清醒。尽管我们的信仰不同，我们却都代表着上帝。我们要尊重所有人类才是对上帝的尊重。