The Library is honored to be the permanent, online home to a series of interviews from the three-part documentary film, “The Leaven of Good,” which was created by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue to honor the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate.
Nostra Aetate, “The Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions,” was a ground-breaking declaration written in 1965 by the Second Vatican Council that aimed to promote interreligious dialogue and cooperation among faith leaders from around the world. The interviews captured, explore the history of the declaration and its continuing legacy and impact on how faith leaders interact together today to face new challenges.
In recognition of a need to preserve these videos for posterity and to ensure that they are accessible for researchers, the Library entered a partnership with the President’s Office and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue two years ago. Today, DigitalGeorgetown houses 43 full interviews from the first phase of the documentary project. Salwa Ismail, Head of Library Information Technology, had a special opportunity to present the new collection to many of the faith leaders interviewed at the June 2017 Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue meeting held at the Vatican in June 2017. In the coming months, the Library expects to continue to add interviews from the remaining two phases and to continue the work of making the collection fully searchable for researchers.