When Neutrality is Immoral: Israel, Hamas, and Christian Moral Equivalence
The Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem have responded to the October 7 Hamas massacre in Israel and ensuing war in Gaza with posture of moral equivalence, suggesting that both parties in the conflict share equal blame and equivalent moral responsibility for the consequences of their actions. Intellectually, this is an easy path to take. But is it morally right?
The Spiritual Life: Sacrifice – Path to Communion
The mystery of Christ’s sacrifice--our Paschal Lamb--is at the heart of the Christian faith. But the biblical notion of sacrifice is obscure to most people today. What does Christ’s sacrifice really mean? And how do the sacraments—especially Reconciliation and the Eucharist—manifest the Lord’s sacrifice? The sacrifices of the Old Testament help us to gain insight into these questions.
Jewish Oral Law and Catholic Sacred Tradition
I like to say that studying Judaism made me Catholic. Many years ago, I was a zealous, anti-Catholic evangelical Christian living in Jerusalem and active in the Messianic Jewish movement. Messianic believers are eager to rediscover the Jewish Jesus and the Jewish practices of the Early Church before it became tainted and compromised—so they say—with gentile beliefs and practices.
A Tale of Two Christian Universities
Franciscan University and Azusa Pacific University Reveal two radically different models of Christian higher education: while one is solidly rooted in the Bible and Christian tradition; the other is increasingly influenced by radical progressive ideas and in danger of losing its Christian identity.
The Bad News and the Good News: Original Sin and the Gospel Message
The doctrine of original sin is an essential component of the Christian faith. If catechists don’t explain well the nature, effect, and consequences of original sin, they will find it very difficult not only to address the major moral issues of our day, but also to effectively communicate the Gospel.
The Eucharist in its Jewish Context
Although the Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life,” many Catholics are unfamiliar with its rich Old Testament and Jewish background. In this article, we will look at four aspects of this background: the king-priest Melchizedek, the Passover, the manna, and the bread of the Presence.
Si je t’oublie, ô Jérusalem
« Catholiques Pour Israël » prend note et se réjouit de la décision du Président Donald Trump de reconnaître Jérusalem comme capitale d’Israël et d’y transférer l’Ambassade Américaine.
Israel, l’Eglise et le Peuple Elu
Dieu a conditionné Son salut et son projet rédempteur pour le bonheur de tous les hommes à Son amour pour le peuple d’Israël. Seuls ceux qui aiment le peuple d’Israël peuvent aimer le Dieu d’Israël. Israël est en ce sens le premier-né de Dieu, le plus précieux à Ses yeux.
Two years after its publication, the authors of the "Kairos Palestine" document held an anniversary conference in Bethlehem, constituting themselves a tribunal before which to arraign all the churches of the world for not showing enough enthusiasm for their original document.
For over two decades, parts of the Christian world have been bemused by the writings of self-styled "Palestinian Christian theologians." Since their brightest lights are Protestant pastors, they are minor figures among the overwhelmingly Orthodox and Catholic faithful of the Holy Land. But they are strangely popular in Liberal Protestant circles abroad and especially beloved of church bureaucrats.
Catholics for Israel
Christoph Cardinal Schönborn says European Christians' support for Israel is not based on Holocaust guilt and Christians should affirm Zionism as biblical. Schoenborn said it was doctrinally important for Christians to recognize Jews' connection to the "Holy Land" and Christians should rejoice in Jews' return to Palestine as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
In the Catholic Church, disagreements are commonplace over a whole range of issues, be they political, social, economic, religious or historical, but at the end of the day these differences of opinion can be resolved through amicable discussion, prayer and a sense of fellowship and family in Christ. There is one issue, however, that divides so deeply that it has the potential to create permanent separation, and this is the issue of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.
The Hidden Roots of the Crisis of the Church in the Holy Land: In the troubled Holy Land, divided and torn by conflict, local Church leaders and Christians of all colors often claim to speak a tireless message of justice, reconciliation and peace. If only more people would listen to this message - so they claim - it would surely dramatically improve the prospects for peace between the conflicting parties in the region. But is this true?
On the heels of the Gaza disengagement, which was intended to empower the Palestinian Authority to improve the lives of its people, few journalists have reported on the acutely trying times facing the Christians residing in areas "governed" by the Palestinian Authority. Professor Justus Reid Weiner, Scholar in Residence at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, provides an in-depth look into the nearly uninterrupted persecution of Christians throughout the decade since the Oslo peace process began. Read 
Hamas denies Israel's right to exist. But for pontifical diplomacy, the Jewish state is wrong to defend itself with force. The custodian of the Holy Land reveals the thinking behind the Church's policy in the Middle East.
Day by day the anti-Israel alliance, and sadly in collaboration with major church movements mainly from the Protestant world, is seeking to make the Apartheid label stick to Israel. We see this at present in the fortnight of global agitation known as “Israel Apartheid Week.” There is more to this scheming than meets the eye in that the real agenda behind branding Israel an “Apartheid state” is to remove the Jewish State altogether.
Perhaps you have seen this map before; it claims to illustrate the "Palestinian loss of land" from 1946 to 2000. The problem is that the map completely misrepresents the recent history of Palestine-Israel.
Br. Tilbert Moser proposes a biblical alternative to the Two-State Solution and Vatican recognition of the Palestinian State. This article is currently available in German only.
There has been much excellent academic study of the history of Christianity in the land of its birth. It could fill a whole library. In recent years, however, all that fine work has been eclipsed by the myth, created by the so-called "Palestinian narrative," of Palestinian Christianity.
The self-styled “Kairos Palestine” document was launched in Bethlehem on December 11,2009 by a panel chaired by the former Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem,Michel Sabbah. The document is meant to mobilize churches worldwide in a program of boycotts, divestment and delegitimization directed at the State of Israel.
