ABSTRACT
There is no greater historic manifestation of the Roman Catholic Church's shift in attitude toward the Jews than the Nostra Aetate (NA) of the Ecumenical Council Vatican II. The restoration of Israel was an emphasis of missiology prior to the inception of the Church. Israel is still allocated to the secretariats for relations with non-Christian religions. Though officially entitled "Declaration on the Relation of the Church to non-Christian Religions", the original intention of its authors was to address the Jewish- Catholic question only. Instead of dissolving Jewish particularity and universalizing it into the existence of the "new people of God", Ratzinger stresses Jewish uniqueness in order to claim its abolition. In line with replacement theology, Ratzinger seeks to stress the conditionality of the Sinai covenant, reiterating that its temporal period has indeed passed.
