The evolution of the conciliar texts regarding the Muslims

Abstract

When the Council Fathers met for the Third Session, September 1964, they had before them two draft statements dealing with Islam and the Muslims. One was very brief and was contained in a single sentence inserted in the chapter on "The People of God" and prepared by the commission entrusted with the schema de Ecclesia. The other constituted the second paragraph of the "Second Declaration" annexed to the schema de Oecumenismo. The first draft was presented and modified during the first part of the Third Session to be approved during the same session. The second draft also underwent various amendations during the tense debates and events which took place in connection with the highly controversial issues related to the question of the Jews, during the Third Session and the following Intersession to be, in turn, approved in the Fourth and final Session of the Council.