Pope Francis lied once more about Israel’s efforts to defend itself against Islamist entities attacking its citizens, entirely adopting the Hamas-run Health Ministry’s narrative.
On Thursday, an aide to the pontiff gave his 2025 State of the World speech after a cold left the pope unable to provide the address personally. In the address, Israel’s defense was described as “shameful.” The spiritual head of the 1.4 billion Catholics called for a “diplomacy of home” and a “diplomacy of freedom” to replace what he termed the “horrid commerce” of war. He called for more humanitarian aid to Gaza and the establishment of a Palestinian state inside the borders of Israel. He called for a ceasefire, implying a solution that would leave Hamas in control of Israel’s southern border.
“We cannot in any way accept the bombing of civilians,” the text said. “We cannot accept that children are freezing to death because hospitals have been destroyed or a country’s energy network has been hit.”
“I renew my appeal for a ceasefire and the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza, where there is a very serious and shameful humanitarian situation, and I ask that the Palestinian population receive all the aid it needs.”
“My prayerful hope is that Israelis and Palestinians can rebuild the bridges of dialogue and mutual trust, starting with the smallest, so that future generations can live side by side in the two States, in peace and security, and that Jerusalem can be the ‘city of encounter’, where Christians, Jews, and Muslims live together in harmony and respect.”
Ironically, the pope also decried the rise of antisemitism.
The pope also called for a return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal with Iran that would allow the Islamist regime to initiate a nuclear weapons program.
“More recently, I think of the positive signs of a resumption of negotiations to return to the framework of the Iran nuclear deal, with the aim of ensuring a safer world for all,” the Pope’s statement read.
When the Obama administration pushed through the JCPOA in 2015, it was touted as an agreement that would prevent Iran’s Islamist regime from developing a nuclear weapon. In fact, the agreement merely delayed it, removing economic sanctions that empowered the regime and allowed the regime to launch a multi-pronged proxy attack on Israel. According to the JCPOA, Iran can initiate a nuclear weapons program in October 2025.
In his letter to the pope, Rabbi Eliezer Simcha Weisz, a member of the Council of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate, criticized the Pope’s statements, saying that Pope Francis’ statements “are not merely disappointing, they represent a historic danger” and “revived the darkest patterns of Catholic Church history—patterns that for centuries transformed false accusations into violence against the Jewish people.”
“Your portrayal of this conflict deliberately ignores the tragic reality that Hamas deliberately embeds its terrorist infrastructure within civilian areas using hospitals, schools, mosques, and churches as military installations and weapons depots. They cynically use Palestinian children and civilians as human shields, forcing Israel to make impossible choices in its legitimate fight for survival. Your failure to acknowledge this cruel exploitation of innocent lives, while condemning Israel’s efforts to defend itself, reveals a profound moral blindness. Every casualty in this war is a tragedy, but the responsibility lies squarely with Hamas, who intentionally maximize civilian casualties for propaganda purposes. Your silence on these tactics, coupled with your persistent portrayal of Israel as an aggressor, sends destructive ripples across the global consciousness at a speed and scale unimaginable to your predecessors.”
The pope has been criticized for his comments on the war. In a letter he wrote to Middle Eastern Catholics on the first anniversary of the attack, he never mentioned Hamas by name or made explicit reference to its atrocities, including the hostages. The letter also quoted passages from the Gospel of John that have historically been used to fuel religious antisemitism.
In an interview last month about a soon-to-be-published book, Pope Francis called for an investigation into claims that Israel is carrying out a “genocide” in Gaza.
Last year, Pope Francis met with Palestinians whose relatives were security prisoners in Israeli jails or were in Gaza. Members of the Palestinian delegation told the media that the pope had described Israel’s actions as “genocide.”
In September, Pope Francis responded to a question about IDF airstrikes in Lebanon that killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah; he replied that Israel’s airstrikes in Lebanon were going “beyond morality.”
In December, Pope Francis labeled children dying in wars, including in the Gaza Strip, as the “little Jesuses of today,” and said that IDF actions were reaping an “appalling harvest.”
The Vatican supports a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians that would establish an unprecedented militarized Palestinian state inside Israel’s borders that has been ethnically cleansed of Jews, with its capital in an exclusively Muslim Jerusalem.
Pope Francis has a history of being myopic regarding Palestinians and Arabs bent on destroying the Jewish state. In 2015, just a few days after the Vatican officially recognized the Palestinian state, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was granted an audience in the Apostolic Palace. After the meeting, Francis gave Abbas a special medallion, representing the angel of peace “destroying the bad spirit of war.” The Pope explained to Abbas that the gift was appropriate since “you are an angel of peace.”
