Some American influencers justify their Jew-hatred with what they claim is Catholic doctrine. Faithful Catholics have noticed and are pushing back.
Calling this phenomenon “wicked” and “unsettling”, Simone Rizkallah, director of the Coalition of Catholics Against Antisemitism, told me. “Many faithful Catholics feel that their faith is being scandalously misrepresented.”
Actress and October 7 Coalition founder Patricia Heaton, for example, “lash[ed] out against her fellow Catholics who crave ‘a medieval version of Catholicism’”, The Free Press reported. Heaton called Candace Owens – a podcaster peddling conspiracy theories about Jews and Israel, and Carrie Prejean Boller, a beauty queen turned Religious Liberty Commissioner turned influencer – “impostors wearing skin suits that have popped up in the last two years”. Both recent converts “use that tradition and history and kind of bastardise the whole thing”.
Baylor University professor Francis Beckwith, a Religious Liberty Commission legal adviser, blasted Boller’s conduct at February’s antisemitism hearing, saying she interrogated Jewish witnesses “like a medieval inquisitor” about whether opposition to the “genocide in Gaza” or antizionism is inherently antisemitic. Rizkallah argued that Owens’ scapegoating of Jews violates Catholic teaching, and merits excommunication.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops tweeted a video, encouraging Catholics “to reject antisemitism and the lies and conspiracies that fuel it, and to stand clearly against hatred and violence directed toward our Jewish brothers and sisters”. They added that “defend[ing] religious freedom with integrity” requires “reject[ing] antisemitism”. Relatedly, The Forward reported that Bishop Joseph Bambera, who chairs interreligious affairs for the conference, sent explicit guidance to all bishops about discussing Jews and Israel during Holy Week and Easter.
When Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, chair of the Religious Liberty Commission, removed Boller, she blamed “a Zionist political agenda” and “anti-Catholic prejudice” for her dismissal. Minnesota Bishop Robert Barron, a Religious Liberty Commissioner, instead cited as reason for Boller’s removal that she was “browbeating witnesses, aggressively asserting her point of view, hijacking the meeting for her own political purposes”.
Barron further outlined the Catholic view of Zionism: “All forms of antisemitism are to be unequivocally condemned; the state of Israel has a right to exist; but the modern nation of Israel does not represent the fulfilment of biblical prophecies and hence does not stand beyond criticism.” With church figures feeling compelled to comment, it’s worth understanding the Catholic Church’s official position.
“Our Jewish friends – truly our Jewish brothers and sisters in faith, as proclaimed by Pope John Paul II – need to know that these influencers do not speak for the Catholic Church,” Princeton University professor Robert George told me. “Most Catholics utterly reject this evil. They have been well-catechized on the issue” for decades, according to George. “In the developed teaching of the Catholic Church, antisemitism in any form is a grave sin. I repeat: a grave sin. One cannot be a faithful Catholic by committing and promoting this sin.”
Rizkallah recapped the Church teachings of Nostra Aetate, a 1965 declaration from the Second Vatican Council, which stated: “Antisemitism is a sin. The Jewish people are not rejected by God. The Church understands herself as mysteriously linked to the Jewish people – not separate from them in some dismissive or superseding way.”
Author Mary Eberstadt echoed these sentiments, telling me, “The claim that Catholicism dictates antisemitism or antizionism: it’s wrong. There’s a long history of argumentation and statements” that can be “summarised in the sentence by Venerable Fulton J. Sheen [former New York Bishop]: ‘To be antisemitic is to be anti-Christian.’” Eberstadt added, “There is more noise than there are real numbers here – but the noise remains wicked, and because it is leading some people away from truth, it demands to be called out.”
George agreed: “Catholic intellectuals (such as myself) have a moral and religious obligation to do our part in pushing back against the efforts of those who are promoting contempt for Jews and Judaism.”
Rizkallah advocated for priests to be “deeply formed in what the church actually teaches about Jews, Judaism, and Israel, so they can teach it clearly.” Next, “if you don’t have a Jewish friend, make one, because Catholic social teaching is . . . meant to be lived in relationships”.
Finally, conferences “especially for Gen Z Catholics”, should educate attendees about “scripture, the Catechism, and the Church’s teaching on Jews, Judaism, and Israel”.
American Jews can feel heartened. Faithful Catholics see the problem. And Catholic laypeople and the church are fighting back on behalf of both communities, supporting Pope John Paul II’s “dearly beloved brothers”.
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