The long-awaited, final revision of the Ecumenical Council’s proposed statement on the relations between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people, now titled “Declaration on Relations of Catholics to Non-Christian Religions,” will be distributed to the 2,500 prelates attending the Council tomorrow, and is expected to come up for preliminary voting by Thursday, well-informed Vatican sources said today.
It was considered still doubtful, however, whether the declaration can reach a final vote before the Council ends its current, third, session, on Saturday. After the preliminary voting, when changes and possible reservations may be proposed on the floor, the draft will have to go back to the Coordinating Commission and printed once again before the final balloting.
If, as some prelates think, the preliminary vote does not take place until Friday, then certainly there will be no opportunity for a final vote by Saturday, and the declaration will have to be held over for the Council’s fourth session, to be convened in 1966.
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