The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported that on Jan. 3, Pope Francis met with Abolhassan Navab, an Iranian cleric who heads the regime’s University of Religions and Confessions (URC), an entity responsible for overseeing the persecution of Christian converts in Iran.
The IRNA reported that during the meeting, Pope Francis slammed Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, saying, “God created humans free, but today there are those who want to enslave people and humanity to achieve their goals…We also have no problem with the Jews, and our only problem is with Benjamin Netanyahu, who, regardless of International laws and human rights, has created crises in the region and the world.”
Navab presented his position in the world, saying to the Pope, “The Iranian government and people are always ready to help spread peace and justice in the world, and to achieve this goal, they warmly shake the hands of all those who take steps in this direction.”
The Vatican has not responded to the report. This marked the second time the two religious leaders have met.
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.”
