"Pope Francis went on to say that his heart is close to all the people who inhabit the Holy Land, which includes Israelis and Palestinians."
Pope Francis in March 2013.(photo credit: Casa Rosada is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. Via Wikimedia Commons)ByRON KRONISHUpdated: In recent weeks, there has been some criticism of statements by Pope Francis against the war in Gaza by some Jewish pope-watchers and some Israel government ministers. Some have described this as a new crisis in Jewish-Catholic relations. I think that these critiques are overblown and misguided, since the pope has not changed his basic views toward the need for peace in Israel, Gaza, and the region. Nor has he revoked any of his long-held views concerning Jews and Judaism. Therefore, I would like to offer a different view concerning Pope Francis, this war, and his relations with the Jews.
When I first heard about the election of Pope Francis in March 2013 following the unprecedented resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in the previous month, my first reaction was one of wonder and awe. Not only did the Catholic Church elect its first South American as pope, but it elected a person for whom the poor, the environment, the minorities in the world who suffer persecution to this day, and the quest for peace in many places, including in Israel and Palestine and other parts of the world, are all high on his agenda. I said to myself: “Here is a man with a very strong and religiously grounded ethical compass who will broadcast a major moral message to his believers around the world and people of other faiths as well, including my own” (I also asked myself: “Would we have a chief rabbi in Israel with such a strong commitment to the major ethical issues confronting our people and all of humanity instead of just the narrow focus on ritual life and Jewish particularity?”).
Upon assuming the mantle of the religious leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, the former cardinal Bergoglio took the name of Francis, in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, as a sign of his commitment to peace. This sent out a clear signal to the world that this pope was going to be committed to peace and harmony in the world, that he was going to lead this church with a dedication to universal issues in unprecedented ways.
In addition, because of his many decades of service to the poor in Argentina, Pope Francis brought his tradition of humility with him to the Vatican. He refused to live in the papal palace, preferring a simple apartment. He is still very much concerned about the poor within his own church and around the world and about the environment, about which he has spoken often.
In addition to his universal concerns, Pope Francis has continued the path of the Catholic Church since Vatican II of the 1960s by reaffirming the importance of dialogue with Jews (as well as with leaders of other religions) based on the famous Vatican proclamation known as Nostra Aetate (“In our time”) of October 1965. This groundbreaking document changed the discourse in the area of Jewish-Christian dialogue in particular and interreligious dialogue in general in the contemporary period. I summarized this in a film that I helped to produce in 2001 titled I Am Joseph Your Brother by saying: “We have moved from persecution to partnership, from confrontation to cooperation, from diatribe to dialogue.”
World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder gives Pope Francis the “Kishreinu” (Hebrew for “Our Bond”) document acknowledging the influence of the Catholic Church's 58-year-old Nostra Aetate declaration on Catholic-Jewish relations, Oct. 19, 2023. (credit: Shahar Azran/WJC)For many years, Pope Francis has continued the Jewish-Catholic dialogue in the spirit of Nostra Aetate and all the decades of productive dialogue that have taken place since then. One can glean this from his many statements on the subject during the 11 years of his papacy (from 2013 until today) and from a recent book titled Life: My Story through History (March 2024), with many important reflections by him on this and many other topics.
This book of interviews with the pope is a fascinating look at his thinking over many years and at key periods in contemporary history. When I read it, I noted that at the end of the first chapter, where he talks at length about his memories of World War II and the need to be welcoming to immigrants today, he was mindful of the Jews:
I want to repeat this, I want to shout it out: Please let us welcome our brothers and sisters when they knock at the door. Because if they are properly integrated, if they are supported and looked after, they can make a big contribution to our lives. Like those Polish immigrants I knew as a child who fled the war, today’s migrants are just people looking for a better place who often find death instead…. Let us not forget, for example, what happened to our Jewish brothers and sisters. And in their case, memories are plentiful.
From this book and his other writings, I have learned that Pope Francis often refers to Jews as his brothers and sisters, which is a very endearing term. One can sense his friendship and his concern for us – and for all human beings – in the way he speaks and writes.
The pope's response to October 7
Last year, during the months of the war between Israel and Hamas (from October 7, 2023, until this writing), Pope Francis continued this custom. In response to an open letter sent to him by a group of scholars and rabbis from Israel and other parts of the world, which was sent to him on November 12, 2023, he sent a letter to “my Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel,” which indicated his deep concern for the Jewish community in Israel and worldwide. Among other things, he wrote:
“Dear brothers and sisters, we are experiencing a painful moment of travail. Wars and divisions are increasing all over the world. Unfortunately, even the Holy Land has not been spared this pain, and since 7 October, it too has been cast into a spiral of unprecedented violence. My heart is torn at the sight of what is happening in the Holy Land, by the power of so much division and so much hatred.
“Unfortunately, however, it must be noted that in public opinion worldwide, this war has also produced divisive attitudes, sometimes taking the form of anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism. I can only reiterate what my predecessors also clearly stated many times: The relationship that binds us to you is particular and singular, without ever obscuring, naturally, the relationship that the Church has with others and the commitment towards them, too.”
Pope Francis went on to say that his heart is close to all the people who inhabit the Holy Land, which includes Israelis and Palestinians. Moreover, he expressed his fervent prayer that the desire for peace would prevail among all inhabitants of the land. Finally, stressed the importance of pursuing peace as a religious obligation:
I would also like to add that we must never lose hope for a possible peace and that we must do everything possible to promote it, rejecting every form of defeatism and mistrust. We must look to God, the only source of certain hope.For me, this is a remarkable letter, although I can imagine that others might be disappointed with it, since it took three months for the Vatican staff to craft it and since it did not take a pro-Israel position or an anti-Hamas one as some signatories of the letter to him might have naively or wrongly expected. Rather than taking one side in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in light of the massacres committed by Hamas against Israelis on October 7, 2023, he reaffirmed his commitment to both the Jews and to “all the people who inhabit the Holy Land,” his way of referring to the Palestinians. At the same time that the pope was mindful of the attacks on Jews on October 7, 2023 – and about increased antisemitism in the world since then – he was also concerned about all of God’s children, as he always is.
What is also important for me in this letter by Pope Francis to those of us who live in Israel is his commitment to peace and justice for both Israelis and Palestinians. He appeals to us not to give up on peace, even when we are in the midst of despair, in the grips of a terrible war of attrition. He urges us – Jews and Catholics – to recommit ourselves to a path of friendship, solidarity, and cooperation. We need to do this in every part of the world, but especially in Israel/Palestine.
I couldn’t agree more with Pope Francis on this issue. I deeply appreciate his persistence for peace while so many other people are mired in the misery of war. War is very cruel, and he was correct in calling out the cruelty of the continual bombing and killing of innocent Palestinian women and children on a daily basis lately (even if some extreme right-wing government ministers didn’t like hearing this), just as he called out the cruelty of the massacres by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023, many times before this and just as he hosted families of the hostages at the Vatican.
There is nothing more important than the pursuit of peace. I agree with Pope Francis that we should never give up on peace, not between Israelis and Palestinians or between other groups mired in seemingly intractable conflicts. Peace is always possible, and we must always keep that flicker of hope alive.■
