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Illustration: Pope Francis at the weeping wall in 2014
Pope Francis addressed a letter to the people of Israel, dated Friday, 2 February 2024.
He sent it to Karma Ben Johanan, a theologian specializing in Jewish-Christian relations, who was among the signatories of an appeal to the Pope drafted by 400 rabbis and scholars in an effort to foster friendly Jewish-Christian relations following the tragedy that struck the Holy Land last 7 October.
To My Jewish Brothers and Sisters in Israel
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We are living through a painful moment of travail.
Wars and divisions are increasing throughout the world.
We are truly, as I said some time ago, in the midst of a kind of “piecemeal world war”, with serious consequences for the lives of many populations.
Unfortunately, even the Holy Land has not been spared from this pain, and since 7 October, it has also been plunged into a spiral of unprecedented violence. My heart is torn when I see what is happening in the Holy Land, by the power of so much division and so much hatred. The whole world looks with apprehension and pain on at what is happening in that land. These are feelings that express special closeness and affection for the peoples who inhabit the land that has witnessed the history of Revelation.
Unfortunately, however, it must be noted that in public opinion worldwide, this war has also given rise to divisive attitudes in public opinion throughout the world, sometimes taking the form of anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism.
I can only repeat Predecessors have often said: the relationship that binds us to you is special and unique, without, of course, ever obscuring the Church’s relationship with and commitment to others.
The path that the Church has walked with you, the ancient people of the covenant, rejects every form of anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism, and unequivocally condemns manifestations of hatred toward Jews and Judaism as a sin against God.
Like you, we, Catholics, are deeply concerned about the terrible increase in attacks against Jews around the world. We had hoped that “never again” would be a refrain heard by the new generations, but now we see that the way forward requires ever closer cooperation to eradicate these phenomena.
My heart is close to you, to the Holy Land, to all the peoples who inhabit it, Israelis and Palestinians, and I pray that the desire for peace will prevail in everyone. I want you to know that you are close to my heart and to the heart of the Church.
In the light of the many communications that have been sent to me I have received from various friends and Jewish organizations throughout the world, and in the light of your own letter, which I greatly appreciate, I feel the need to assure you of my closeness and affection.
I embrace each one of you, especially those who are consumed by anxiety, pain, fear and even anger. Words are so difficult to formulate in the face of a tragedy such as that which has occurred in recent months. Together with you, we mourn the dead, the wounded, the traumatized, and we ask God the Father to intervene and put an end to war and hatred, to these incessant cycles that endanger the entire world. In a special way, we pray for the return of the hostages, rejoicing for those who have already returned home and praying that all the others will soon join them.
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 distrust.
We must look to God, the only source of sure hope. As I said 10 years ago: “History teaches us that our own strength is not enough. More than once we have been on the verge of peace, but the evil one has succeeded in blocking it by various means. That is why we are here, because we know and believe that we need God’s help. We do not renounce our responsibilities, but we call upon God in an act of supreme responsibility before our consciences and before our peoples. We have heard a call and we must respond. It is a call to break the spiral of hatred and violence, and to break it with a single word: the word ‘brother’. But to be able to utter this word, we must raise our eyes to heaven and recognize each other as children of the same Father” (Vatican Gardens, June 8, 2014).
In times of desolation, it is very difficult to see a future horizon where light replaces darkness, where friendship replaces hatred, where cooperation replaces war.
However, we, as Jews and Catholics, are witnesses to precisely such a horizon.
And we must act, starting first and foremost from the Holy Land, where together we want to work for peace and justice, doing everything possible to create relationships capable of opening new horizons of light for everyone, Israelis and Palestinians.
Together, Jews and Catholics, we must commit ourselves to this path of friendship, solidarity and cooperation in seeking ways to repair a destroyed world, working together in every part of the world, and especially in the Holy Land, to recover the ability to see in the face of every person the image of God, in which we were created.
We still have much to do together to ensure that the world we leave to those who come after us is a better one, but I am sure that we will be able to continue to work together towards this goal.
I embrace you fraternally, FRANCIS
