Catholic group asks Pope Leo to clarify Church's stance on Israel
Catholic Voices for Israel, a newly formed Catholic group, sent an open letter to Pope Leo XIV asking the Holy Father to clarify the Church’s theological stance on the State of Israel. The letter questions whether Catholics should view Israel’s creation and continued existence as a sign of divine providence and criticizes the Church’s silence on the issue as potentially harmful. The group argues that acknowledging Israel’s right to exist and its biblical promises would strengthen Catholic solidarity with the Jewish people and counter rising antisemitism. Its founding statement, “For Zion’s Sake,” outlines a biblically grounded case for Catholic support of Israel and has already attracted 165 signatories, including prominent scholars. The initiative is part of a broader effort by the group to promote Catholic Zionism and address theological interpretations that have led to antisemitic rhetoric.
3 months ago
Catholic Voices for Israel has sent an open letter to Pope Leo XIV asking him to clarify whether Catholics should view the modern State of Israel as a sign of God’s providence, and to articulate the Church’s theological stance on Zionism and Israel’s existence. 1
The group, founded last month, argues that the Church’s “theological silence” on Israel’s right to exist has been interpreted by some Catholic commentators as a dismissal of any biblical significance to the state’s creation and endurance. 2
Co‑founders André Villeneuve, a Sacred Heart Major Seminary professor, and Father Antoine Lévy, OP, note a rise in Catholic antisemitism since the October 7, 2023 attacks and contend that Scripture repeatedly affirms God’s covenant with Israel, a promise they say is never revoked in the New Testament. 1
Addressed to Pope Leo on June 22, the letter asks: “Should Catholics interpret the creation and enduring existence of the State of Israel as a sign of God’s providence—or should they not?” It warns that the Church’s reticence “gives ground to those who wish to lend a campaign of denigration the authority of the Church’s own name.” 2
The letter is accompanied by a charter titled “For Zion’s Sake: A Catholic Appeal in Support of Israel,” which defines Catholic Zionism as support for Jewish self‑determination, recognition of God’s love for Zion, and openness to seeing divine providence in Israel’s return to the land. The charter has gathered 165 signatories, including theologian Gavin D’Costa. 1
The charter cites a 2018 letter from Pope Benedict XVI to Rabbi Arie Folger, in which Benedict wrote that the creation of the State of Israel can be seen “in a mysterious way” as the fidelity of God to Israel. 2
At the same time, Benedict’s letter also cautioned that the state “cannot be seen to theologically represent fulfillment of the Land promise, but rather as a secular state which of course has religious foundations,” leaving room for diverse Catholic interpretations. 1
Simone Rizkallah (Tikvah Fund) says the charter is strongest when it rests on doctrines the Church has already affirmed, but notes that the theological significance of the modern state remains an open field for legitimate Catholic debate. 2
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, is quoted as observing that Europeans often view Israel merely as a political entity, whereas for Jews the land holds deep religious and covenantal meaning. 1
David Moss, president of the Association of Hebrew Catholics, praises the initiative as “a work of God” and urges Catholics to stand up for the Jewish people, the State of Israel, and the Jewish traditions that underlie the Catholic faith. 2
Rizkallah also highlights concerns about a resurgence of anti‑Jewish attitudes within some Catholic discourse, emphasizing that the Church’s post‑conciliar teaching on the Jewish people remains a major achievement that must guide theological, political, and moral judgments. 1
Beyond the initial 165 signatories, the initiative has attracted support from scholars such as Gavin D’Costa and organizations like the Coalition of Catholics Against Antisemitism, which welcomes the charter’s rejection of dispensationalism, dual‑covenant theology, and the notion that Israel should be exempt from moral scrutiny. 2
The request for clarification places Pope Leo XIV at the center of a debate that balances the Church’s diplomatic recognition of Israel with the theological question of whether the state fulfills biblical promises. The outcome could shape Catholic‑Jewish relations, influence Catholic teaching on Zionism, and affect how Catholics engage with contemporary political issues concerning Israel and Palestine. 1 2
Clarify Catholic doctrine on Israel’s divine providence
Catholic doctrine teaches that God’s providence toward Israel is real, faithful, and enduring—grounded in God’s covenantal love, which the Church rejects as “substituted” away or cancelled. At the same time, Catholic teaching does not identify the modern political State of Israel with the strictly theological fulfillment of biblical promises, and it insists that salvation is ultimately in Christ—the fulfillment of the covenant’s preparation.
The term Israel can refer to:
Catholic teaching affirms the first explicitly in its religious and theological meaning, while treating the second with caution: even when the Church recognizes the State of Israel as legitimate, that recognition is not automatically a claim that it is the “theological fulfillment” of prophecy.
The Catechism presents Israel’s story as providential: God chose Israel and continued to save and pardon them—not because of Israel’s merit, but because of God’s gratuitous love.
The Catechism states that Israel discovered “only one reason to reveal himself to them” and that motive was “his sheer gratuitous love.”
It also teaches that “thanks to the prophets Israel understood that it was again out of love that God never stopped saving them and pardoning their unfaithfulness and sins.”
So, when Catholics speak of divine providence for Israel, they mean more than “history worked out.” They mean that God’s saving action toward Israel has been continuous and faithful despite failure.
A key development in modern Catholic teaching—taught and received as part of the Church’s current understanding—is that God’s covenant with Israel is not revoked.
In discussing this “never-revoked covenant” language, Pope Benedict XVI explains that it was pronounced by John Paul II in 1980 and later “included in the Catechism.”
Benedict’s account emphasizes both sides of the reality:
As Benedict summarizes, the covenant language is correct “insofar as there is no denunciation on the part of God,” but “a breach of the covenant on the part of man belongs to the actual history between God and Israel.”
He illustrates the pattern with Exodus: when Israel breaks covenant, Moses breaks the tablets—yet God’s mercy returns them as “replacement tablets and also warning signs.”
This is an important point about divine providence: God’s providence does not eliminate sin or judgment, but it does not let Israel’s history become the final word.
The Catechism also shows providence in Israel’s liturgical life. It treats Israel’s institutions not as random customs but as covenantal signs—many of which the Church sees as prefiguring the sacraments of the New Covenant.
For example, the Catechism says that “among these liturgical signs from the Old Covenant” are “circumcision… sacrifices, and above all the Passover,” and that the Church sees them as “a prefiguring of the sacraments of the New Covenant.”
Likewise, it states that God “chose Israel for himself… and revealed his Law to them, thus preparing for the coming of Christ.”
And it highlights the Sabbath as “a sign of the irrevocable covenant.”
In other words: Catholic providence-language about Israel is not merely about election “in theory.” It’s about God’s covenant work that shapes Israel’s concrete historical life.
Catholic doctrine holds two truths together:
The Catechism explicitly connects Israel’s covenant to Christ’s definitive covenant: the “nuptial covenant between God and his people Israel had prepared the way for the new and everlasting covenant,” in which the Son unites to himself mankind saved by him.
So the Church’s approach rejects a crude idea of “substitution” that would treat Israel’s covenant as purely discarded. Instead, Israel’s covenant history is understood as preparation whose fulfillment belongs to Christ.
Catholic teaching also reads Israel’s history as a field where God’s protection and faithful intervention are visible—even through suffering.
Pope Benedict XVI, in a message to the Chief Rabbinate delegation, recalls that the Church recognizes “the beginnings of her faith” as found in “the historical divine intervention in the life of the Jewish people,” and he prays for peace in the region, invoking Psalm 125: “God protects his people.”
While Catholics may rightly disagree on theological “interpretation details,” the doctrinal direction is clear: Israel’s historical experience is not outside God’s providence.
Benedict XVI’s discussion includes an explicit caution about mixing theology and geopolitics. He notes that Vatican recognition of the State of Israel is connected to its legitimacy as a modern constitutional state, while stressing that this “non-theological character” means it cannot as such be considered the fulfillment of the promises of Scripture.
Thus, Catholic providential language about “Israel” should normally be interpreted primarily as God’s covenantal dealings with the Jewish people, not as an endorsement that a current political map is automatically the last theological chapter of prophecy.
If God’s providence toward Israel is enduring, Catholics must respond with a specifically Christian moral attitude—not contempt or hostility, but respect.
Pope Leo XIV, in speaking to a Jewish delegation, highlights shared human dignity and the Church’s rejection of antisemitism and discrimination, referencing Nostra Aetate’s stance.
Benedict XVI likewise stresses that Nostra Aetate was meant to overcome “past prejudices” and “language of contempt and hostility,” and renew mutual understanding rooted in God’s covenant with the Chosen People.
And in his Pesah message, Benedict reaffirms the Church’s continuity with the Old Testament revelation “through the people with whom God… concluded the Ancient Covenant,” quoting Nostra Aetate’s teaching.
Catholic doctrine is firm about:
But the precise theological mechanism—how covenant fidelity, grace, and salvation interact in the concrete case of Jews who do not profess Christ—is not given as a single, fully systematized explanation in the sources here. Some tension can appear when one tries to make every implication explicit at once.
A scholarly Catholic theological discussion notes that the teaching has magisterial status while also being “under-defined” in some respects, such that theologians propose different interpretive models (e.g., “two-covenant,” “fulfillment,” etc.).
That means the Church can teach clearly about God’s providential fidelity without requiring Catholics to adopt a simplistic “either/or” model that the Church has not dogmatically defined in complete detail.
Catholic doctrine on Israel’s divine providence centers on three linked claims:
In practical terms, this doctrine supports respectful dialogue, rejection of antisemitism, and careful separation of theological meaning from political geography.