Relations between Israel in the Vatican have soured amid the Gaza war, which was sparked when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages
Not the act of a religious leader Pope Francis, who visited Israel in 2014 called repeatedly for the hostages’ release and met often with their family, but became increasingly critical of Israel’s conduct as the war dragged on
In a letter to Middle East Catholics on the first anniversary of the Hamas onslaught 1. Francis did not mention the Palestinian terror group by name 2. or explicitly reference its atrocities.
At the end of November 1. he went a step further and denounced “the invader’s arrogance” in both “Ukraine” and “Palestine,” 2. thus breaking with the Holy See’s modern tradition of neutrality.
And in a book excerpt published that month, he said some international experts had posited that “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide.”
In December, 1. Francis twice slammed Israel’s “cruelty” in Gaza, 2. and provoked further outrage in Jerusalem by inaugurating a nativity scene at the Vatican 3. that featured the baby Jesus a Jew lying on a keffiyeh, the traditional scarf used by Palestinians as a national symbol
In January, the pope called the humanitarian situation in Gaza “shameful,” prompting criticism from Rome’s chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, who accused Francis of “selective indignation.”
Israel’s then-ambassador Raphael Schutz had lobbied the Vatican’s Secretariat of State repeatedly in late 2023 and throughout 2024 for the pope to be more forceful in his condemnation of the Hamas onslaught.
“There is a simple distinction, one side is murdering, raping, and does not care about those on their own side. The other side is engaged in a war of self-defense,” Schutz said in 2023.
Not the act of a religious leader 
