“Can the Cushite change his skin or the leopard his spots?” asks the prophet Jeremiah (13:23). In the same vein, we ask: Can the Vatican end its pathological hatred of the Jews that has been ingrained into its DNA for centuries?
L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s daily mouthpiece founded in 1861, and La Civiltà Cattolica, the Jesuit Italian biweekly founded by Pope Pius IX and overseen by the popes and their secretaries of state, cannot stop vilifying the Jews.
They have been crusading overtly against the Jews for the last 150 years, with La Civiltà Cattolica urging governments to impose “exceptional laws for a race that is so exceptionally and profoundly perverse” (1880) and L’Osservatore Romano warning that Jews “cannot and must not live among others as any other people in the world … do” (1898).
The leopard cannot change its spots. On May 7, L’Osservatore Romano published a 2,500-word column titled “Anti-Semitism and Palestine” written by Fr. David Neuhaus, a Jesuit who is a long-term member of the Holy Land Catholic Church’s Justice and Peace Commission.
Blaming Jews for Palestinian Terrorism
Neuhaus blamed Israel’s “ruthless war against the Palestinians” for the rise in antisemitism, equated fighting antisemitism with struggling for Palestinian liberation, and drew a moral equivalence between the Shoah (Holocaust) and the Nakba (Catastrophe), which he defined as Israel’s “destruction of Palestinian society in 1948.”
The Jesuit did not tell his readers that the Nakba was a result of Israel defending herself from a genocidal war of extermination against the Arab armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon (backed by Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Libya), who attacked the fledging state and its ragtag army just as Israel declared independence.
On May 18, Civiltà Cattolica published Neuhaus’s 4,000-word essay on the “Jewish-Catholic Dialogue in the Shadow of the War in Gaza,” explaining why Pope Francis could not take sides.
While using Jesuitical casuistry to feign neutrality, Neuhaus parroted Palestinian talking points to claim that most of the Jews arriving in Israel “were fleeing European anti-Semitism.” He failed to mention that there were more Jewish refugees expelled from Arab countries (850,000 to one million) than Palestinians who became refugees in 1948 (the UN estimated 726,000). Iran later expelled 70,000 Jews following the Islamic Revolution in in 1979–80.
Using a quote, Neuhaus described the Israeli Defense Forces as “the army of Tel Aviv” — an inaccuracy and a reminder that the Vatican does not accept Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Israeli Ambassador Slams Vatican Equivocation
When asked to comment on Neuhaus’s essays, Raphael Schutz, Israel’s ambassador to the Holy See, said that “this wasn’t the first time Fr. Neuhaus was abusing his position to promote his radical anti-Zionist ideology and politics using a mix of lies, fallacies, and omissions.
“Just one example out of many from his recent article in L’Osservatore Romano: he claimed that Israel waged a war on Gaza without mentioning the October 7 massacre. His historical analysis is no better,” Schutz noted.
Schutz asked L’Osservatore Romano if he could respond to Neuhaus. The paper agreed, but later rescinded its offer.
Neuhaus bashes American evangelical Christian Zionists for their alleged misuse of biblical texts to support a return of the Jews to Israel. What he won’t tell you is that the Roman Church did its best to abort Israel’s rebirth, only recognizing Israel in 1993.
But British evangelicals like Lord Balfour, Lord Shaftesbury, Laurence Oliphant, Isaac Newton, Joseph Priestley, John Milton, Robert Browning, John and Charles Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, and Bishop J. C. Ryle sowed the seeds of Israel’s restoration based on biblical prophecy.
I’m not going to engage Neuhaus’s arguments, especially his use of the old smokescreen separating “anti-Judaism” from “antisemitism” to justify the Roman Church’s endemic Jew-hatred — a subterfuge that has been debunked by historian David Kertzer in his book The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican’s Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism.
Vatican Journals Promote Blood Libel
I want to uncover the paradox of Neuhaus’s use of two of Rome’s most virulently Jew-hating publications to perpetuate Rome’s centuries-old war on the Jews, albeit this time using the more sophisticated mantle of peacemaker between Islam and Judaism.
You don’t need to dig too deep into the archives of the two publications to discover how they were not only pivotal in the rise of modern antisemitism, but also, in Kertzer’s words, offered “the clearest expressions” of the popes’ support for Jew-hatred.
The most egregious example of the journals’ antisemitism was their support for blood libel — the conspiracy theory that Jews were commanded to torture and kill Catholic children and use their blood in making the Passover matzah.
This was despite multiple popes from the 13th century onwards, including Pope Gregory X and later Pope Pius X, defending Jews from the blood libel.
In a June 1881 article, Fr. Giuseppe Oreglia di Santo Stefano, one of the founders of Civiltà Cattolica, claimed the Talmud commands Jews to kill Christians. (The Jesuit journal began its anti-Jew campaign in December 1880, with a series of 36 vitriolically antisemitic articles published over the next 40 months.)
When 15 Jews were tried for the ritual murder of Eszter Solymosi, a 14-year-old Catholic girl, in the Hungarian village of Tiszaeszlar in 1883, the journal’s October 25 article backed the blood libel, noting that Jews “are required, in view of their piety, religion and rite to kill Christians and take their blood for their own liturgical and sacramental rites.”
Civiltà Cattolica reported the blood libel as an “irrefutably proven crime” even when the Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, discovered the body was not that of Eszter, but had been dressed in her clothes. Eszter had committed suicide by throwing herself into the River Tisza.
Jews Accused of Ritually Killing Catholic Children for Blood
On January 8, 1884, the publication protested “using Christian blood in Jewish rites in contemporary synagogues.” On January 23, 1884, the journal noted that Jews “ritually extract blood” not only from children, but also from adults, and use their blood to prepare unleavened bread and pandolce cake to distribute among Christians.
The issue carried three articles on the blood libel, with one adding capital letters, stating: “ALL JEWS need Christian blood every seven years,” a second claiming that a child “should be no older than thirteen years old,” and a third explaining that “blood is needed for Passover.”
In 1898, a year after the Gothic novel Dracula was published, L’Osservatore Romano accused Jews of being vampires thirsting for Christian blood.
A July 1892 article in the Vatican daily, commenting on a German ritual murder trial, noted: “it has already been established by many unimpeachable witnesses that Jews practice ritual homicides so that they can use Christian blood in making their Passover matzah.”
In November 1899, the papal mouthpiece reported on a seven-year-old Hungarian orphan who had been found with his throat slit. The article was titled, “A new ritual murder.”
Later than month in an article titled “Jewish ritual murder,” the Vatican newspaper warned “certain” Jews: “Don’t throw oil on the fire … Content yourselves … with the Christians’ money but stop shedding and sucking their blood.”
Vatican’s Journals Justify Historic Antisemitism
When the ritual murder trials resulted in acquittals, L’Osservatore Romano argued that Jews had bribed the judges in all cases and “the judiciary is entirely in the synagogue’s control.”
Thus far, neither journal has issued an apology for its antisemitism. Instead, both continue to contend that they were being anti-Judaistic rather than antisemitic.
As recently as December 2023, Civiltà Cattolica’s editorial board defended its historic assaults on the Jews, arguing that the Church’s anti-Judaism could not have given rise to modern antisemitism. L’Osservatore Romano repeated the arguments in Neuhaus’s essay.
I have read enough to conclude that both journals relentlessly portrayed Jews as rapacious, merciless, unpatriotic gold-diggers seeking world domination: In the words of di Santo Stefano, one of Civiltà Cattolica’s founders: “eternal insolent children, obstinate, dirty, thieves, liars, ignoramuses, pests and the scourge of those near and far.”
The distinction between anti-Judaism and antisemitism, “which led to the horrors of the Holocaust, will simply not survive historical scrutiny,” Kertzer observes. “Every single one of these elements of modern antisemitism was not only embraced by the Church but actively promulgated by official and unofficial Church organs.”
Rome’s leopard hasn’t changed its antisemitic spots. Rather, it gaslights its readers, claiming it never had any spots in the first place. Jeremiah was right. Unsurprisingly, the prophet also said: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
Dr. Jules Gomes, (BA, BD, MTh, PhD), has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.
Hoi Polloi says
Wow, quite the compilation of their words and deeds. It explains a lot. Thank you, Dr. Jules Gomes.
Noreen Rose says
Wow, I am shocked. I am a 73 year old lutheran and have never heard of Catholicism’s hatred of the Jews. I grew up in a time in the US when Catholics and Lutherans were at bitter odds. In fact, my parents were convinced the pope/papacy was the anti-Christ.
At the time I thought that notion was a bit extreme. However, especially in light of the radical socialist stance of Pope Francis, and hearing now about the depth of anti-semitism in the Vatican, I must say, perhaps my parents were on to something!!
My prayers are with the nation of Israel and with Jews world wide who face such hideous persecution. I can’t understand nor fathom that hatred of the Jews nor the unbelievable rise in anti-semitism in recent months.
Wellington says
Noreen Rose: Well, I do hope you have also heard of Martin Luther’s own venomous assessment of Jews as demonstrated by what he published in 1543: “On the Jews and Their Lies,” the original German title being “Von den Juden und ihren Lugen.” Lutherans have no more clean hands than do some Catholics.
Very few Christian denominations have clean hands where Jews are concerned. The Quakers are one of them (e.g., William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, allowed Jews to settle in Pennsylvania and build their synagogues).
James Lincoln says
Wilmington,
If I remember correctly, I think that Richard Nixon was a Quaker.
James Lincoln says
Sorry about the typo, Wellington!
crown says
Sorry. Quakers are one of the big, big exponents of BDS.
Of course, one could go with the argument that anti-Israel does not equal anti-Jewish. That argument has been pretty much shredded recently.
Unfortunately their high and mighty virtue signaling has effectively put the Quakers in the same camp as Martin Luther, as far as the Jews, though they would vociferously object to that characterization.
Crown says
Oops. Didn’t see the comments earlier, which made the same point.
Wellington says
crown: I was referring to the Quakers over time. I agree with you that the modern Quakers are a disgrace—and in sundry ways. But then there are many other Christian denominations (e.g., Episcopalians) that have also fallen terribly.
gravenimage says
The Quakers were staunch abolitionists–so sad to see so much antisemitism from them today.
Noreen says
Remember, Luther grew up in the Catholic Church of Germany where undoubtedly his anti semitism came from.. He was the 1st protestant reformer not to die at the hands of the Catholic church, but certainly not the last.
My denomination of Luthranism does Not carry on his anti-semitism.. I am of German decent but I do not recall anyone in my family ever saying anything against the Jews. Catholics yes, but not the Jews.
My family immigrated prior to WWII.
So at least recognize that not all Lutherans agree with everything about Luther. He wasn’t perfect – none of us are. We don’t “worship” him. But I admire his courage to stand up to the Catholic Church. And his interpretation and wisdom concerning the Bible and the false teachings of the Catholic Church has been a sound basis of faith for decades of Lutherans.
Fidei Defensatrix says
Noreen, it’s dishonest to say that Martin Luther learned his anti-Semitism from the Catholic Church. Luther was very much a philosemite when he first began his revolution against the Church. He wrote in “That Jesus was Born a Jew” that
Jews had done well to resist Catholic conversion all these many years, that to be a good Christian one had almost to become a Jew, and that should Catholic authorities tire of persecuting him as a heretic, they should persecute him as a Jew.” He became an anti-Semite due to his frustration of them not converting to his new beliefs.
gravenimage says
Martin Luther rejected many things about Catholicism–but, sadly, tended to be even more antisemitic than were Catholics.
This is not, of course, to say that all Lutherans since have been antisemitic.
somehistory says
Are these creepy liars the “false prophet” of Revelation 13? The creepiness coming from them is an encouragement for the mozlums to keep fighting and killing the Jews “wherever they find them.”
The “false prophet” works with the “wild beast” and the “dragon” to force everyone to ‘bow down to the “image of the wild beast.”‘
The vatican, its pope and the ‘spokesmen’ all seem to be working to further the interests of those who want to kill everyone who refuses to ‘bow down.’
Stive says
In old Latin, in an old dictionary obviously, is the Latin word for Divination or Witchcraft. That word is Vaticanus.
somehistory says
Thanks, Stive.
Andrew Blitzer says
The Quakers are no bargain either. The American Friends Service Committee despises Israel
Wellington says
I agree about the present Quakers. But back in the 17th century a Quaker like William Penn was far ahead of the “Christian pact.”
Problem with virtually any religion, even when considering the merits it might have (N.B., Islam has extremely few to none), is that unlike science and philosophy it eventually demands one way or another that people accept its unproveable contentions—or else.
For me, this remains the single greatest weakness of religion in general, to wit, science and philosophy in their very make-up not only allow for, but hope for, even demand, skepticism. Religion, by contrast, may allow for some skepticism—and even this is problematical—but eventually it demands belief and not proof—or else—and this is the great weakness in all religion as I have been able to determine it, even though I remain a supporter of enlightened religions like Judaism and Christianity where their ethics are concerned.
gravenimage says
+1
Peter WF says
I can’t take the Vatican seriously until they lead by example and settle some islamic “migrants” in the vatican.
tim gallagher says
I don’t get this hatred of the Jews by the Catholic Church except that I suppose it must be mostly about how the Jews, and their Roman rulers, murdered Jesus, himself a Jew of course. As a Catholic I never came across any hatred towards Jews in Australia. I can recall some Protestants hating us Catholics a bit as a vague memory from my childhood back in the 1950s. More like the sort of bigoted shit you would get in Northern Ireland. I vaguely recall some stones being thrown at a bunch of us Catholics ages ago.All that bullshit, thankfully, seems long gone now.. Jewish people that i have met seem always decent, very normal upholders of western values. I think that islam is the enemy of all civilised values and I know some Popes have seen islam for the clear barbaric evil it is, though the present senile old fool who is the Pope right now doesn’t have a clue. I guess the hatred for the Jews among Catholics must go back to times before Christians had to endure the horrors of islamic invaders. To me, the enemy should be clear and it is islam..I meet some pleasant Muslims but I can find nothing good in islam at all.
John Forbes says
Well what has to be remembered is that the Catholic Church supported, Franco in Spain, Mussolini in Italy as well as Hitler in Germany! Jew hatred is at the very center of Roman Catholicism and it is also a large feature in Islam! Both Islam and Roman Catholicism have much to answer for and at least so far have not apologised at all! In relation to Islam and the trilogy of the so-called holy texts the term KAFIR is prominent in all 3 and encouraged abuse of the Kafir is also in all 3 books!
gravenimage says
There are many things to hate about Franco in Spain. But he was *not* virulently antisemitic as were his fellow Fasists, and many Jews in Spain survived the Holocaust in Europe.
Joe says
Catholics see Jews as their religious ancestors, and the Catholic Catechism singularly speaks fondly of Jews. Some Messianic Jews are both Jewish and Catholic. All the first Christians were Jews. In the Catholic Bible, Jesus says, “Salvation is from the Jews” which pretty much sums up the sentiment that Catholics have for Jews (at least officially).
But obviously, Catholics have a lot of idiots who don’t understand very much which provides fodder for articles such as this one.
Hoi Polloi says
As someone raised in a Protestant denomination, let me defend that. I never once heard any statement derogatory toward Jews or Catholics. Our youth leader was a science teacher who had a very literate, fact-based mode of teaching. She was also the adoptive mother of three children from the foster system. I did not encounter closed minds. I was obviously fortunate and am thankful to know and be able to say that this environment exists.
somehistory says
I cannot say how closely my background is to yours, except that I never heard a ‘discouraging word’ growing up. Not about any race, any nationality, any religion.
The Jews were the ones given the Law. Men of the Jews wrote down the history, the Laws, commands, praises, warnings, rewards, and made sure to keep it safe for all who would come after.
A Jew gave birth to Jesus. Other Jews recorded the things He did and said and the encouragement they give is from one group of humans who had it rough to the rest of us.
I believe all of the hatred one group feels for another is a tool of satan; a weapon of his evil, demonic warfare against the entire human race, all of mankind. The devil sows the seed, and some allow it to grow and spread it to others.
James Lincoln says
Excellent post, somehistory.
somehistory says
Thank you, James. I appreciate it.
gravenimage says
Same here growing up Episcopalian.
Hoi Polloi says
+1
Rick Olsha says
AM ISRAEL CHAI !!!
E. Maria says
I as a practicing conservative Roman Catholic do not believe that Jews are practicing ‘Ritual killing of Catholic children however, the conservative Orthodox Jews do have a Hatred of Catholic’s’ to the point of spitting on them when they pass by Catholic’s in the Holy Land. There are videos of the Orthodox Jews spitting on Catholic’s as they pass by.
So, every single race in the world yes, including Jews, have biases and the Orthodox Jews are no different than the ‘terrorist hating Islamic political ideology. Same thing like the Hindus being persecuted/killed by Islam but then, the Hindus persecuting/killing Christians, etc, etc. So, when does this hated cease?
gravenimage says
E. Maria wrote:
“the Orthodox Jews are no different than the ‘terrorist hating Islamic political ideology.”
E. Maria–with respect–you are much mistaken. Some Orthodox Jews spitting on Christians–ugly but not violent–is as bad as it gets, and is *not* supported by Israel or by Judaism.
Meanwhile, Muslims are mass murdering Chistians all over the world–and this is a full on genocide in many places like Nigeria, Gaza, and Iraq. And this is orthdox Islam.
OLD GUY says
As a Catholic I don’t hate the jewish people or their religion. I will gladly stand with Israel against Islam and terrorism. The Current Pope is kind of like Biden a supposed leader, Rome didn’t get it right either.
gravenimage says
Agreed, OLD GUY.
Noreen says
To this day, especially during Holy Week, we hear that it is NOT the Jews who killed Jesus. Rather, Jesus willingly came to earth to suffer and die and thus attone for my sins and the sins of the whole world.
So it would be weird indeed for me to be anti-Semitic when it was my Jewish born savior who died so that I can be assured of eternity in heaven.
gravenimage says
The Vatican’s Mouthpieces Haven’t Ended Their 150-Year-Old Jew-Hatred
………………………………………..
So depressing…
Good piece from Jules Gomes.
Levy says
How can anyone admire those Catholics , wow how much Hate!!!
I wonder what this hateful people are telling the kids, and not even talk about all those pedophiles, including the pope are doing in Africa
Catholicism is a cult not a religion
No wonder that’s so many people do not want to hear anything from Catholics
It is just disgusting. How much hate can someone spread?