How should Catholics speak about Jews in general, and Israel in particular? That question was raised anew by a recent interview book in which Pope Francis commented on the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza: “According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide. It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”
Taken literally, the claim is unremarkable. There are many who have made the charge of genocide against Israeli actions in Gaza, including the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International. Such charges, being very serious, should not be made recklessly, but rather ought to conform to precise definitions. Perhaps that is all that Pope Francis meant.
It should be recalled that the Holy Father has used the term “genocide” before, causing alarm. On his return flight from Canada in 2022, where papal addresses were carefully crafted to avoid the accusation of genocide against the Canadian government and Catholic Church, Pope Francis dropped the loaded phrase almost casually while airborne, to the consternation of many Canadian bishops. “I didn’t use the word genocide because it didn’t come to mind but I described genocide,” Pope Francis told reporters. On that occasion, precious definitions were not used.
The recent Gaza comments caused widespread distress in Israel and throughout the Jewish diaspora, including protests from the Israeli government and several leading international Jewish organizations.
From their perspective, it was part of a regrettable pattern. In September, Pope Francis spoke about Israeli military operations as “disproportionate and immoral.” The Holy Father telephones the Catholic parish in Gaza every day as an indication of his solidarity but appears distant from Israeli Jews. Is the Vatican insensitive to how Israelis and Jews elsewhere might hear the pope’s words?
Hamas carried out a massacre on October 7, 2023, in Israel. It is explicitly committed in its charter to the genocide of Jews in the land of Israel. It’s possible that Pope Francis assumes everyone already knows this. Yet offense will understandably be taken if, when speaking of potential genocide on Israel’s part, there is not an acknowledgment of the genocidal goals of Hamas.
A similar example of offense needlessly given occurred when the Holy Father wrote a letter to Catholics in the Middle East on the first anniversary of the Hamas attacks. That letter was not addressed to Israelis or Jews, but they noted that it did not identify the perpetrators of the attacks, referring only to a “fuse of hatred” that “exploded in a spiral of violence.”
More surprisingly, the letter called for “prayer and fasting” to overcome the “the spirit of evil that foments war, because it is ‘murderous from the beginning’, ‘a liar and the father of lies’ (John 8:44).” Both Jewish and Catholic commentators were taken aback by the inclusion of John 8:44, a biblical phrase used for centuries to disparage Jews as children of Satan. Obviously that was not the Holy Father’s meaning, nor does it reflect his thoughts, but veteran Vatican commentator John Allen observed that “it raises troubling questions about the sensitivity level in the Vatican to Jewish-Christian relations.” The question of sensitivity determines how, or even whether, a message is heard.
Consider Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, whose every word is fraught with the possibility of causing offense with real consequences for the lives of his flock. Less than two weeks after the Hamas attacks last year, he offered himself in exchange for children being held hostage in Gaza by Hamas.
It was unlikely that Hamas would take up the offer, and whether the Vatican or Israel would facilitate it, but it made clear that Pizzaballa knew the suffering of the Jewish hostages and their families. That sensitivity has earned his other interventions a more sympathetic hearing.
A breakthrough in Catholic-Jewish relations occurred in 1986 when St. John Paul II made a visit to the Great Synagogue of Rome, the first pope ever to do so. The indelible memory of that historic visit includes the Holy Father’s felicitous phrase that Catholics consider Jews their “elder brothers.” It was an echo of the greeting that St. John XXIII, whose baptismal name was Giuseppe, famously addressed to a Jewish audience in 1960. “I am Joseph, your brother,” he said, quoting Genesis 45:4.
For many years, “elder brothers” became a stock phrase for Catholic leaders when speaking affectionately about Jews. Yet in 2010, Pope Benedict XVI suggested that it was time to retire that language. In his interview book Light of the World, Benedict noted that he prefers to call Jews “fathers in the faith” rather than “elder brothers.” That was exquisite sensitivity to how Jews read their Scriptures. It is the younger brother who is favored, and the elder brother who is lacking: God prefers Abel’s sacrifice over Cain’s; Isaac rather than Ismael inherits the promise; Esau forfeits his birthright to Jacob; David is anointed instead of his older brothers.
Providentially, then, it is the older brother who gives way to the younger. Thus for Catholics to style themselves the younger brothers may cause offense, even if none is intended. Benedict wished to avoid even that.
Catholic-Jewish relations are a family affair, and in families, what is said is not as important as how it is said, and the context in which it is said. Sensitive speech pays attention to that and minimizes needless offense.
Fr. Raymond J. de Souza is a Senior Fellow at Cardus.
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