The Jerusalem Post April 22, 2025 One of his final public addresses, read aloud on Easter Sunday due to illness, described the situation in Gaza as “dramatic and deplorable.”
He called for a ceasefire and the release of hostages, yes — but 1. the criticism of Israel was clear and constant, 2. while Hamas’s atrocities were diluted into vague moral equivalence.
To his credit, Francis did call on Hamas to release the hostages and condemned antisemitism in his final Easter message. But these gestures felt obligatory, coming after months of slanted commentary and silence on Hamas’s continued aggression.
Even in his calls for peace, the pope too often spoke as if Israel’s existence was incidental to the conflict, rather than fundamental to the peace.
There is a tragic irony in the fact that the pope who sought to open the Catholic Church’s heart to the marginalized, who emphasized humility and reconciliation, struggled in exhibiting the same balance when it came to the world’s only Jewish state.
In the Jewish tradition, we say, “zikhrono livracha” (“May his memory be a blessing”) And in many ways, Pope Francis’s memory will be just that. But not, sadly, when it comes to Israel.
On that front, history may record him as a missed opportunity — 1. another well-meaning pope who failed to rise above the politics of the moment, 2. and in doing so, lent moral cover to those who seek Israel’s destruction.
