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Does the Catholic Church support Israel? From 1948 to today’s diplomatic stance
Brussels Morning ^ | 08/2025

Posted on 09/19/2025 10:40:29 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege

The history of the Vatican and Israel has been characterized by the lack of recognition of Israel on many occasions, which was largely caused by the dispute over the status of Jerusalem and whether Christian holy places are in good condition or not. It was not until after the Oslo Accords that the Holy See recognized the State of Israel in 1993. Rather than an act of religious prohibition, this understanding amounted to the convenient acceptance of a political fact. The Vatican has since maintained diplomatic relations with Israel while advocating for Jerusalem to have a special international status to protect the rights of all faiths, especially the Christian minority.

The Catholic Church makes a doctrinal clarity as to the distinction between the biblical Israel and the modern-day state of Israel. According to Catholic dogma, the Jews do not have a God-given right to rule the Holy Land: the Church is considered to be the spiritual descendants of God’s people – the new Israel. This view is based on key teachings of the Catholic Church, including the Second Vatican Council’s teaching that the new People of God are not bound by ethnic or territorial claims. Hence, the acquisition of the Land of Israel by the Catholics is not God mandated and does not form any part of the fulfillment of biblical prophesies. Even as it celebrates Judaism and acknowledges the historic connection of the Jewish people to the contemporary state, it does not explicitly tie the connections to a religious claim to the existence of the state.

The Catholic world is of different thoughts regarding Israel and Palestine. As an example, Catholic organizations in the United States and bishops often stand in support of Israel’s right to security and condemn anti-Semitism…

(Excerpt) Read more at brusselsmorning.com ...


TOPICS: Catholic; History; Judaism
KEYWORDS: allchristiansdo; antisemitism; catholic; israel; liars; vatican; vcii; zionists
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1 posted on 09/19/2025 10:40:29 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Does Israel support the Catholic Church?


2 posted on 09/19/2025 10:43:29 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: PGR88

The historic Christian sites in the Holy Land tend to be either Catholic or Orthodox Christian affiliated…


3 posted on 09/19/2025 10:46:05 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

It’s fairly bizarre to demand that the Catholic Church should support the nation state of Israel. That’s like asking Mormons to cherish Missouri.


4 posted on 09/19/2025 10:53:18 AM PDT by DesertRhino (When men on the chessboard, get up and tell you where to go…)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Matthew 22:21

States are a construct of Man, not God.


5 posted on 09/19/2025 10:58:16 AM PDT by Pete Dovgan
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To: PGR88

Golda Meir did.


6 posted on 09/19/2025 11:07:11 AM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

I did not realize the catholic church practiced replacement theology but there it is.


7 posted on 09/19/2025 11:09:04 AM PDT by Dartoid
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

The Roman theft and displacement have been largely reversed.

The Roman Catholic Church needs to understand that.

Israel is not asking the Roman Catholic Church for permission to survive or for permission to rescue its people and never will.

Gazans can release the hostages. Everyone will be the better for it.

“Let my people go....”

The leaders of the churches should know what happened to the first born of Eygpt when that was delayed.

God didn’t commit genocide, right?


8 posted on 09/19/2025 11:12:12 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: Dartoid

“The Corporate Conversion of Israel” by Catholic teacher Jimmy Akin attempts to clarify.

I say attempts because I think anything in the realm of the spiritual snd prophetic needs to be approached with a heavy dose of humility.

“For we only prophesy in part…but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.” - Saint Paul

https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-corporate-conversion-of-israel


9 posted on 09/19/2025 11:15:46 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: DesertRhino
LOL.

Earlier today I was remarking on how f r used to have a very vibrant Catholic community.

10 posted on 09/19/2025 11:19:03 AM PDT by hcmama
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
According to Catholic dogma, the Jews do not have a God-given right to rule the Holy Land

Do you know what “Catholic dogma” is ?

This is not one of them.

According to Jimmy Akin, a well known Catholic apologist (who used to be a Protestant),

For its part, the Catholic Church acknowledges that the Jewish people still have a special role in God’s plan. 
That’s something I’ve written about before. 
But the Church does not teach that the Jewish people have a right to possess the land of the modern state of Israel in the present day by divine promise. 
In fact, the Holy See has studiously avoided saying that.

It has even gone so far, in its 1993 Fundamental Agreement with Israel, to state:
The Holy See, while maintaining in every case the right to exercise its moral and spiritual teaching-office, deems it opportune to recall that, owing to its own character,
 it is solemnly committed to remaining a stranger to all merely temporal conflicts, which principle applies specifically to disputed territories and unsettled borders [art. 11:2].


In its specific application, this passage is referring to disputed territories like the West Bank and Gaza rather than to the territory of Israel as a whole, but the same principle applies in general. 
The Holy See treats the question of what people have title to what territory as a temporal affair and thus something that goes beyond the Church’s purview. 
The Church can certainly raise moral objections to various courses of action, like trying to forcibly kick out the people who currently have title to a territory. 

But the question of who has title is treated as a temporal rather than theological issue. 
The Church does not hold that any particular people has an immutable divine right to a particular territory.

This is not to say that a Catholic could not hold that Israel does have a right to the land in the present day due to God’s promise. 
That is an opinion within the realm of permitted theological speculation. But it is not something the Church has signed off on. The Church has remained conspicuously neutral on that theological question as it applies in our age.
One could thus hold the opinion that the Jewish people have a right to that land in our day, that they have a right to the land but not in our day (perhaps at the Second Coming or near it, if we are not now near it), or that they no longer have a special right to the land. Each view is permitted.


11 posted on 09/19/2025 11:22:37 AM PDT by af_vet_1981 ( The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

No


12 posted on 09/19/2025 11:37:08 AM PDT by circlecity
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To: hcmama

It did, didn’t it? I’m not saying they should hate them, but before Vatican II in 65, the RCC was not exactly besties with Jews or Zionism. So like the Mormons and Missouri, I would expect at best a kind of quiet admission of not being enemies.

But it’d be a bit much to expect them to fawn all over them.


13 posted on 09/19/2025 12:03:08 PM PDT by DesertRhino (When men on the chessboard, get up and tell you where to go…)
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To: Dartoid

I’m pretty sure that this has a basis directly in the teachings of Christ. Why don’t we Christians keep the sabbath (the old one)? Because the old law is irrelevant, and the old covenant is null. The church is the new covenant.


14 posted on 09/19/2025 12:21:09 PM PDT by billakay
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To: billakay

The Gentile Church is grafylted into the Israel of GOD.


15 posted on 09/19/2025 12:34:44 PM PDT by cowboyusa ( YESHUA IS KING OF AMERICA AND HE WILL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE HIM!)
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To: cowboyusa
Right, but the "One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church" has fully replaced all of the old institutions, and is now the main line of the covenant.

That is why there is no need for a Jewish temple in Jerusalem. That is all moot.

What is appropriate is to pray for the conversion of the Jews, that they get back onto the boat.

16 posted on 09/19/2025 12:39:24 PM PDT by billakay
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To: DesertRhino

The balance of political power in the United States depends on evangelicals and fundamentalist Protestants. If they come out strongly for Republicans, the Republicans win. If not, the Democrats win.
They believe that the founding of the modern state of Israel is part of a divine plan.They believe the second coming will occur only when the Jews are reassembled within Israel. They demand that America whatever the political realities or the consequences must support and guarantee Israel’s survival.

Catholic theology holds no such belief. Historically in view of the Holocaust , most American Catholics have supported Israel. However that support has been recently waning.

Catholic theology has traditionally held that after the coming of the messiah and his redemptive sacrifice, his followers are the new chosen people of God. Sadly throughout its history it viewed Jews as misguided, stubborn remnants and irritants. Often that attitude resulted in terrible atrocities done in the Church’s name. However that is not to say that the Church never protected the Jews. During WWII at the height of the Holocaust more Jews found refuge and survival with individual heroic Catholic families, convents, seminaries, monasteries and churches than anywhere else in Europe.


17 posted on 09/19/2025 12:48:30 PM PDT by allendale
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To: allendale
However that is not to say that the Church never protected the Jews. During WWII at the height of the Holocaust more Jews found refuge and survival with individual heroic Catholic families, convents, seminaries, monasteries and churches than anywhere else in Europe.

I would take this one step further and point out that overall, the Jewish people had been protected by living as residents of Christendom for the past two thousand years.

18 posted on 09/19/2025 1:01:10 PM PDT by Captain Walker ("Justice exalteth a nation: but sin maketh nations miserable." – Proverbs 14:34)
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To: billakay

I belive in YESHUA, and my Salvation comes from belief on him alone. As do many Jews.


19 posted on 09/19/2025 1:14:29 PM PDT by cowboyusa ( YESHUA IS KING OF AMERICA AND HE WILL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE HIM!)
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To: cowboyusa
I belive in YESHUA, and my Salvation comes from belief on him alone. As do many Jews.

You're halfway there.

20 posted on 09/19/2025 1:22:05 PM PDT by Captain Walker ("Justice exalteth a nation: but sin maketh nations miserable." – Proverbs 14:34)
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