L’Islam in aula conciliare. Nostra Aetate 3, genesi e reazioni

The paper intends to focus on Christian understanding of Islam in modern times. Starting from the pioneering work of Miguel Asin y Placios and Louis Massignon, which benefitted of the spiritual experience of encounter with Algerian Muslims made by Charles de Foucauld, in the West, and helped by the medium of Oriental Christians, in the East, a new sensitivity towards Islam emerged in some sectors of the Catholic Church.
Before the Second Vatican Council, many personalities within the Catholic Church cultivated an interest in dialogue with Islam, trying to better understand the theological question at the root of the relation between Islam and Christianity. Among those personalities, one can find a marginal figure, but of great cultural and spiritual depth: father Giovanni Fausti, a Jesuit priest who served in Albania before and after World War II.
All these ferments somehow came together in Second Vatican Council when it came to deciding whether and how to include a new Christian reflection on Islam.
The way in which Nostra Aetate 3 refers to Islam and to Muslims is not accidental. In the text of NA3, every word (said or unsaid) is balanced and chosen according to a conscious choice that we will try to unveil.
During these last fifty years since the promulgation of the Declaration the reactions within and outside the Church were numerous and manifold. In the paper, some Islamic reactions will be examined.