Pope Francis -- Into an ice age: 1. “fuels an already out of control global antisemitism” 2. “Inappropriate comments while antisemitism runs rampant in Europe” and around the world
Israeli Ambassador to the Holy See, Yaron Sideman said,
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”There was a genocidal massacre on 7 October 2023 of Israeli citizens
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since then, Israel has exercised its right of self-defense against attempts from seven different fronts to kill its citizens”
“Any attempt to call it by any other name is singling out the Jewish state”
The Pope’s suggestion that Israel might be guilty of genocide came after more than a year of frustration from Jewish leaders involved in dialogue with the Catholic Church
That exasperation was further compounded by the pontiff’s uneven handling of his relationship with the global Jewish community
More than a half-century later, Francis is now the third pope in a row who has described antisemitism as a sin incompatible with Christian belief and visited Israel Papal visits to synagogues are almost routine
The Church is committed to fighting antisemitism and popes insist that God’s covenant with the Jewish people was never broken
Rabbi David Rosen, former American Jewish Committee International Director of Inter-religious Affairs, said,
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“This would have been absolutely unthinkable 50 years ago, let alone 500 years ago”
