What’s happening in the Catholic world when we see key Catholic influencers seeking to turn the Catholic church against Israel?
These Catholic influencers include Candace Owens, Nick Fuentes, Megyn Kelly, and Carrie Prejean Boller.
And sadly, they denounce American support for Israel as a betrayal of US national interest, vilify Israel’s conduct while ignoring the existential threat it has faced since its founding, and frame hostility toward the Jewish State as a matter of principle.
Their rhetoric has contributed to a climate in which hostility toward Israel is presented as the authentic Catholic position.
A new initiative, Catholic Voices for Israel, has officially launched with its founding public statement: “For Zion’s sake: A Catholic appeal in support of Israel.”
It was initiated by two Catholic theologians: Reverend Dr. Antoine Levy, OP and Dominican friar, and Dr. Andre Villeneuve, associate professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages, Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit.
Over 150 Catholic leaders around the world have signed up to its list of affirmations and commitments, including six from Israel:
1. We reject the new replacement theology promoted by certain Catholic theologians, apologists, and commentators as contrary to Scripture and the Church’s teaching.
The Church does not replace or erase Israel; she participates in Israel’s election and calling.
2. We affirm that Catholics, who recognize Israel’s existence as a sign of God’s ongoing faithfulness, stand within the bounds of authentic Catholic reflection.
3. We affirm that Catholic theological discourse must never again become a seedbed for antisemitism – including antisemitism operating under the guise of anti-Zionism.
As the International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee has stated, authentic Catholic theology must include “the recognition of the unique and unbroken covenantal relationship between God and the Jewish People and the total rejection of antisemitism in all its forms, including anti-Zionism as a more recent manifestation of antisemitism.”
4. We affirm Israel’s right to defend herself against those who deny her right to exist, including adversaries driven by jihadist ideologies explicitly committed to Israel’s destruction.
A Catholic moral framework that applies just war principles even-handedly must acknowledge both Israel’s right to self-defense and the genuine severity of the threats she faces – threats that too many Catholic commentators minimize or ignore entirely.
5. We acknowledge the dignity and suffering of the Palestinian people and seek a just and lasting peace for all who live in the land. We do not minimize the gravity of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, requiring urgent attention and relief.
We recognize that Palestinian Christians in particular bear costs they did not choose, and that their welfare must be part of any just resolution.
6. We condemn the actions of extremist elements within Israeli society – including within the political class, the military, and the settler movement – whose conduct toward the non-Jewish inhabitants of the land, including violence against Palestinian civilians, falls gravely short of the moral standards the Jewish tradition itself demands.
Israel’s election entails moral responsibility towards all who live in the land.
7. We reject the framing of hostility toward Israel as a Catholic moral imperative.
In particular, we reject the politically motivated application of terms like “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” to Israeli military operations, charges that require a far higher evidentiary standard than their uncritical use in some media and public discourse suggests.
Appeals to the Catholic world
Catholic Voices for Israel also make the following appeal:
A call to repentance and a call to action: Fidelity to the Gospel calls Catholics to repent of every form of replacement theology, anti-Judaism, and antisemitism, including the subtler forms in anti-Zionist discourse.
Standing with Israel is an investment in the Church’s own renewal and mission: “If Israel’s stumbling has meant riches for the world, how much more will their fullness mean?” (Romans 11:12). We invite all Catholics and people of good will to join us.
A call to Catholic leaders and institutions: We call upon bishops, priests, theologians, educators, and Catholic media to speak clearly and consistently against replacement theology and anti-Zionism.
We encourage Catholic universities, seminaries, and publications to teach the Church’s authentic doctrine on Judaism – not as a marginal addendum, but as an integral part of Catholic formation.
A word to the Vatican: many senior Catholic leaders have affirmed Biblical Zionism. For example, Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, formerly the Pope’s personal preacher, wrote in his book The Mystery of Christmas:
“As a Christian, I could not remain prisoner of the political judgments the world was passing on Israel… We share with the Jews the Biblical certainty that God gave them the country of Canaan forever (Genesis 17:8; Isaiah 43:5; Jeremiah 32:22; Ezekiel 36:24; Amos 9:14)…
“We know that the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable (Romans 11:29)… In other words, we know that God gave Israel the land, but there is no mention of His taking it back again forever.”
We express hope that the Vatican will build upon its historic diplomatic recognition of the state of Israel by articulating more fully the theological foundations for that recognition.
We further express the hope that Church authorities will acknowledge that systematic anti-Zionism – the denial of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state – represents a contemporary form of antisemitism, incompatible with the spirit of Nostra Aetate and with the Church’s stated commitment to the Jewish people.
We entrust this appeal to the God who has remained faithful to Israel through every generation. In the words of the Psalms, “He who keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.” (Psalm 121:4)
In support of this new initiative, and since Nostra Aetate, the Church has continued to develop this positive theology of Judaism.
It calls antisemitism “opposed to the very spirit of Christianity;” affirms that Israel’s origin is an “act of divine election” and her existence a “supernatural fact;” calls Christians to repent for historic anti-Jewish prejudices, and asks the Jewish people’s forgiveness for them.
Catholics who embrace replacement theology and antisemitism in its modern form are not defending Catholic orthodoxy. They are abandoning it.
The writer is one of the 150 signatories of Catholic Voices for Israel and works as Secretary of the Evangelical Catholic Initiative (evancat.org) and of Towards Jerusalem Council 2 Ireland (tjcii.org).