Editors’ note: America has published numerous essays on the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and on the war in Gaza. Read other views on the conflict between Israel and Palestine here. (This article was edited and published shortly before President Trump suggested that Palestinians may have “no alternative” but to leave Gaza. It may be updated in response to developing news.)
The Catholic Church’s relationship with the State of Israel, and with Zionism, has historically been complex, influenced by theological, historical and social factors. While many American Catholics are supportive of the Jewish people and sympathetic toward Israel, they do not necessarily identify as Zionist. For other Catholics, identifying as anti-Zionist reflects a criticism of certain political actions or policies of Israel, especially concerning Palestinian rights. However, the language used in such criticism can reveal latent antisemitism or religious prejudice.
A reluctance to embrace the Zionist label is understandable. For instance, as a Catholic, I may choose to advocate for essential values without aligning with certain terms (such as progressive conservative) that might provoke adverse reactions. In a similar vein, a “new Catholic Zionism” could be advanced, supporting Israel’s right to exist securely without requiring the term Zionist. I would like to propose a few considerations that may serve to reframe our thinking when it comes to our “fathers in the faith,” as Pope Benedict XVI referred to the Jews in his homilies and addresses, and the state of Israel.
But first, there is one thought to keep in mind as we consider this issue, by Dr. Faydra Shapiro, an Orthodox Jewish woman living in Jerusalem who has dedicated her life to Jewish-Catholic relations: “...no thinking about the state of Israel—by Catholics or anyone for that matter—can take place without keeping two very different, but both important realities in full view: on the one side, the Holocaust, and the Jewish struggle for national liberation and survival; on the other, Palestinian suffering and the Palestinian struggle for national liberation.”
Dr. Shapiro continues: “To lose sight of either one of these while thinking theologically about the state of Israel is to not only do bad theology, but is also immoral and intellectually untenable. To make note of these two realities is not to compare them or draw false equivalencies between them, but to simply speak the truth about our lives and senses of suffering and vulnerability here.”
Today the Jews, tomorrow you?
Zionism had its roots in the objective of securing a safe, sovereign homeland for the Jewish people after centuries of persecution, violence and displacement, an objective met in 1948 with the creation of Israel as the only Jewish-majority state in the world. There are 158 Christian-majority countries and 50 Muslim-majority countries in the world; unfortunately, a good number of the Muslim-majority states, including some established after 1948, are characterized by hostility toward Christians, Jews and even non-radicalized Muslims, either directly by the government or by militant groups.
Terrorist organizations like Hamas do not hide their hatred toward Jews and Christians (see the references to “warmongering Jews” and “the lackeys of Zionism” in the covenant released by Hamas in 1988) and unfortunately seem to have some support, whether directly or implicitly, in the United States—as in protests on college campuses that have included chants of “from the river to the sea,” a phrase that has been taken up by Hamas.
Supporting Jews and Israel, apart from our spiritual call to do so, is also quite practical. Today the Jews, tomorrow you. My Armenian-Egyptian grandmother was told this phrase directly to her face in Cairo in 1973, a warning that helped motivate our family’s emigration to the United States. Both Jews and Armenians in Egypt held a dual identity in tension: deeply rooted in the country’s cultural fabric yet always vulnerable to shifting tides. Both communities, once integral to Egypt’s liberal and cosmopolitan society, were ultimately targeted by Islamist extremists, and now there are barely any Armenians remaining and certainly no Jews. So the phrase “first the Saturday people, then the Sunday people” is not an abstraction to me, but instead a pattern of history. And now Israel and Armenia are arguably the only two states in the Near East who are committed to protecting Jews and Christians.
Supporting Israel and the Jews is supporting ourselves (we are not a separate people, as St. Paul the Apostle and our clerics remind us), both spiritually and pragmatically. These two aspects of reality are more related than most people realize. Being pro-Israel (“pro” being a strange prefix you rarely hear with regard to other places, with the exception of Palestine) is also being supportive of authentic diversity in the Near East: 21 percent of Israelites (and many who serve in the I.D.F.) are non-Jewish minorities such as Muslim Arab Israelis, Christian and Aramean (non-Arab Christian) Israelis, Druze and other religious and nonreligious minorities.
In his 1985 edition of The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism, Father Edward Flannery writes: “The blueprint for the extinction of Christian antisemitism is ostensibly already on paper. It is to be found in the statements and guidelines of the churches, and in the work of the revisionist theologians…. Regrettably, the present pace of its dissemination and implementation is slow. Most of the Christian populace has not been reached.”
Catholics need a revitalized and passionate approach to Zionism that follows closely the “blueprint” that jumps off the written pages and into our real lives. This perspective does not mean uncritical support for everything Israel does or the denial of Palestian suffering; Israelis themselves critique their government as openly as Americans do ours. Rather, this Catholic approach affirms the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland, acknowledging Israel as a place of refuge and security for Jews worldwide.
This approach stands apart from evangelical, dispensationalist views that link Israel to end-times narratives. Instead, it offers moral support for Israel, grounded in historical and ethical realities, without eschatological expectations. Supporting the Jewish people in this way does not dilute our Catholic faith; it reflects the humility St. Paul the Apostle calls for in his Epistle to the Romans 11—and an acknowledgment of the Jewish people’s unique role in God’s salvation plan without falling into errant “dual covenant” or “replacement” theologies.
Catholics can confidently acknowledge the presence of Jews in their ancient homeland, a presence that has been continuous since the days of Joshua, as a sign of God’s continued love for his people and the church, a living connection to our biblical heritage, and a sign of prophetic, albeit mysterious, value.
More from America
- As cease-fire wobbles, new study finds Gaza death toll likely much higher than believed
- A year of war in Israel and Gaza: Praying for a just and lasting peace
- Winter is coming in Gaza. How much worse will the misery get?
- The Holy Land’s Christian leaders speak out against humanitarian disaster in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank
- A rabbi’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks—and how the conflict has evolved since
