Did the pope change the game on interreligious dialogue?

Is Pope Leo XIV changing how the Vatican approaches interreligious dialogue?

Church watchers have been wondering about the question at least since Nov. 29 of last year, when Leo XIV politely declined to pray in Istanbul’s Blue Mosque during his visit to Turkey.

A new document released this week confirms a shift – of emphasis, at least – in the Vatican’s approach to dialogue with other religious traditions.

One of the persistent criticisms of the Vatican’s approach to interreligious dialogue in recent decades has been that the Church has practiced a sort of “religious relativism” in the wake of the Vatican Council II’s teaching document on the issue.

The document issued this week appears to address that concern, while also preserving the hard-won good will and progress in dialogue with many different partners over the past six decades.

Titled “A Journey of Hope: Sixty Years of Interreligious Dialogue and Fraternity in the Light of the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate” and signed by the heads of three different Vatican departments, the document – officially a “Note” – was issued on Wednesday, Sept. 16.

The dicastery heads who signed the Note are Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández of Doctrine of the Faith,