by Gerald A. Honigman
I recently read an article by the venerable American Jewish Committee’s Interreligious Affairs director, Rabbi Noam Marans, which, unfortunately, gave far too much credit for where it was due to the late Pope Francis regarding his relationship and true feelings and actions towards Jews in general and the sole, minuscule, resurrected nation of Israel Reborn in particular…
The Francis I Knew: A Warrior Against Antisemitism, a Sometimes Impolitic Critic of Israel
While my own extensive doctoral work is in Middle Eastern Affairs and National Security Policy Studies, and my forever timely book http://q4j-middle-east.com and other publications (in use in numerous universities and other institutions of higher learning all over the globe) focus primarily on these subjects as well, I also worked in interfaith relations when I served as a specialist consultant for a three state region of a much better led ADL in the 1970s, with Arnold Forster and Benjamin Epstein at the helm.
My job had me focusing primarily in combating increasing levels of antisemitism and it’s flip side, anti-Zionism, on dozens of campuses throughout my region, and forging relationships with key media outlet editors in order to have in-depth analyses published as major op-eds, I also worked with numerous priests and pastors fostering better understanding between our communities.
I have a problem with Rabbi Marans article mentioned above.
Let’s open with a look at Francis’s endorsement of the Fakestinians, er “Palestinian” ARAB claim that Yehoshua/Jesus was a Fakestinian and not a Jew….
Now, to better understand why I employ such wording above, please be sure to include the two internal links in the next analysis debunking such Arab identity claims …”Thinking Palestine’” …
The AJC article is far too generous, almost gushingly so, an assessment of Pope Francis, and focuses on his alleged “good points”(were they in reality “good,” or just as should have been expected, or just not “bad” points?) regarding Jews while ignoring some very troublesome bad things which he too often freely indulged in.
Francis’s papacy should not be compared in any way to that of Popes John XXIII, John Paul II, and too few others like them.
Rather, it seems that Francis felt somewhat obliged to halfheartedly embrace Nostra Aetate, yet his frequent reversions to traditional, age-old Roman Catholic Church antisemitic indulgences and beliefs probably tell a very different story than that which could be written of a true friend of the Church’s “forever wandering, perfidious, Deicide People.”
The road to Auschwitz was paved by such teachings over the millennia. If you doubt this, read the homilies of one of both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church Fathers, St. John Chrysostom, here:
https://share.google/NWJO9ObyC2KPJVbEN
Given the bloody record of the Church and the Jews, praise should only be given to those who really deserve it.
Frances was no Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli—Pope John XXIII or Pope John Paul II, or anything like them—and it cheapens the praise they deserve by also granting it to him.
The very fact that Francis was brazen enough to repeat such blatantly antisemitic quotations from the Gospel of John, which have been interpreted by millions of people over the millennia calling Jews the children of the Devil—no matter how much one tries to offer other explanations (he only meant “Pharisees,” etc.), is atrocious.
After European “Passion Plays” around Easter, such quotations like above and “may His blood be upon us and our children” by actors on stage provoked drunken masses to slaughter the local “G_d killers.”
https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Matthew%2027%3A25
Many other examples involving Francis’s Jew/Israel problem exist, despite some niceties he sometimes participated in. He participated in such niceties with rampantly antisemitic Muslims too.
But the one problem I personally find to be most troubling, besides his deicide and other nasty allusions and remarks, is his granting moral equivalency to what Hamas & Co.routinely and deliberately have done to innocent Jews, and harm which has come to Arab civilians due to a barbaric war that the organization they freely elected to power, knowing its charter calls for the total elimination of Israel and Jews everywhere started.
Unfortunately, here’s Pope Francis allowing a Baby Jesus doll in a crèche at the Vatican during Christmas dressed in Arab garb with a Palestinian Arab keffiyeh denying not only Yehoshua/Jesus of Nazareth’s Judaism and Jewish ethnic identity, but the very connection of his people to the land of Israel as well.
https://nypost.com/2024/12/11/us-news/baby-jesus-in-a-keffiyeh-is-a-nativity-trend-causing-upset/
Whenever I see the word “deicide” written, the words “Absolute Absurdity” follow immediately in my mind. The use of such a word confirms for me that the “church” in question is a political entity not a spiritual one.
If I may recommend a book on this topic, try “Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews, a History” by James Carroll. This is one book I couldn’t put down.
Pope never asked when Jesus was circumcised.