Israel

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.

In his book "The Vatican against Israel - J'accuse," Giulio Meotti does a major injustice to the Catholic Church regarding its relationships with the Jewish people and Israel, approaching the topic from a position of bias against the Church.   

In the plan of God’s rule over history, Israel has a great role to play in preparing the nations for the return of the Messiah in glory. In the twentieth century began the great epochal change preparing mankind for the conclusive event of history: the final coming of the Kingdom of God, for which all Christians pray every day, saying: Thy Kingdom come!

I would like to present three images, one taken from the Old, and the other two from the New Testament, images which express the unique divine plan which embraces Jews as well as Christians: the mountain upon which all the peoples of the world come as pilgrims; the wall which at one time divided humanity, definitely torn down by Jesus Christ; and the tree, nourished by a single root, which should shine in the abundance of its leaves.

On September 2, 2009, Catholic apologist Robert Sungenis published a document entitled "The Erroneous Teachings of Catholics for Israel” in which he directly attacks the legitimacy of our apostolate. This document states that on the Catholics for Israel website “various and sundry claims about the Jews and Israel are being disseminated as Catholic Teaching” but these, according to Sungenis, are “not Catholic teachings.” The following is our response to Sungenis' attacks.

We are a Catholic apostolate, faithful to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, of Jewish and Gentile Catholics from Israel and from the nations. In accordance with the teachings of the Church, we believe that God’s plan of salvation awaits the “Final Marriage” of Israel and the Church.

Catholics for Israelare highly aware of the precarious and difficult situation you find yourselves in.  We are not against you by calling ourselves Catholics for Israel. It is precisely the concern for the situation you are in and the complexity of your situation that is motivating us to address and speak out those things that today most Catholics are afraid to even think about.

Benedict's visit to the Holy Land was and probably will remain the most complicated and sensitive trip of his pontificate.  Even before he arrived there was a sense in the air that "anything that can be misinterpreted will be." Now that the dust has settled, it is fair to say that the trip generated very mixed feelings. 

St. Jerome wrote long ago that "ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." Today, largely because of a widespread ignorance of Scripture, God's unique calling to the Jewish people is increasingly delegitimized and denied, and at the heart of this delegitimization stands their biblical connection to the Land of Israel.

From Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger's Book 'The Promise':"The Church appears in Jerusalem, after Pentecost, as an "assembly" kahal in Hebrew, ecclesia in Greek. it is unthinkable that she would claim to replace Israel. She is not another Israel, but the very, fulfillment, in Israel, of God's plan..."

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.

"We know that God gave Israel the land but there is no mention of his taking it back again forever. Can we Christians exclude that what is happening in our day, that is, the return of Israel to the land of its fathers, is not connected in some way, still a mystery to us, to this providential order which concerns the chosen people and which is carried out even through human error and excess as happens in the Church itself?"

The Christian population of the areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA) has sharply declined in recent decades, as tens of thousands have abandoned their holy sites and ancestral properties to live abroad. Those who remain comprise a beleaguered and dwindling minority. In sharp contrast, Israel's Christian community has prospered and grown by at least 270 percent since the founding of the state.

On the one hand, as Catholics we wish to remain faithful to the Church's mission of evangelization.  On the other hand, we also wish to be mindful of the difficult history of Jewish-Christian relations, and be respectful and appreciative of the Jewish faith.

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?

Ariel Ben Ami's and Mark Kinzer's reactions to my study regarding the different ways of understanding Israel have been important and I have appreciated the richness of their contents, albeit correcting some opinions I had expressed.

While most Evangelical Protestants are generally friendly to the Jewish people and the State of Israel, there is a small band of Evangelical pastors and professors who want to line up all Evangelicals unilaterally on the Palestinian side. The most egregious example may be Anglican vicar Stephen Sizer, whose has chummed up with the likes of Naturei Karta and Iranian President Ahmadinejad. But Gary Burge probably wields the greater influence.

Sometimes I hear Catholics talking about making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and I must confess that something lightly irritates me about this. “Why would this irritate you” you might ask. “What’s wrong with Catholics visiting the land of Jesus and cradle of their faith?” Nothing is wrong with Catholics visiting the land of Jesus of course. It is with the terminology that I have a bone to pick.

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 Human Rights of Christians in Palestinian Society.

Catholics for Israel welcomes and applauds the decision of US President Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to relocate the American Embassy there.