In Pope Francis, a voice for interfaith dialogue and against antisemitism

Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina, the Pope cited Jewish theologians and psychoanalysts as influences

Pope Francis attends the weekly general audience on Feb. 12 in the Vatican. Photo by Getty Images

By Benjamin Ivry April 21, 2025

For Pope Francis, who has died at the age of 88, one of the most intriguing personal brushes with Yiddishkeit occurred when he was 42. Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina on Dec. 17, 1936, the future Pope was psychoanalyzed by an unnamed Jewish woman psychiatrist in his homeland. As leader of the Jesuit order in Argentina, he revealed in a book of conversations with French sociologist Dominique Wolton, he experienced anxiety when smuggling refugees out of the country, ruled by a dictatorship. He learned coping strategies from a therapist who, he said, was a Jew without otherwise identifying her. At the time, Vatican policy was critical of Sigmund Freud, but the Pope recalled: “The advice and observations that [the psychoanalyst] gave me were very helpful — her teachings are still very useful to me today.”

Likewise, the Pope kvelled over a Spanish translation of Be Glad You’re Neurotic, published in 1936 by Louis E. Bisch, an American Jewish psychiatrist, which made the future pontiff “laugh out loud.” Bisch, a popular author, claimed that psychoanalysis is “simple and easy” for patients. Bisch also admitted to being “neurotic myself and delighted,” which should “reassure all the neurotics” among his readers. Serious-minded colleagues dismissed his shtick as a “medicine show,” or touring act that peddled miracle cure patent medicine.

Opting to seek miracles of a different kind, the Pope evolved a theological approach inspired by Jewish chochem, like his compatriot Abraham Skorka, a biophysicist and rabbi, who co-wrote On Heaven and Earth with the Pope.

Elsewhere influenced by the Jewish theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel, French Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, and the Austrian-Israeli thinker Martin Buber, Pope Francis took measures to ensure that his papacy should not be followed by a retrograde or reactionary one that discounts interfaith communication.

Before his most recent hospitalization, he extended the terms of the dean and vice-dean of the College of Cardinals. These stalwart supporters oversaw his own election as Pope a dozen years ago.

As is well-known to filmgoers who relished the Oscar-nominated fictional political thriller Conclave, secretive gatherings determine the selection of each new pope. By avoiding a scheduled vote on the next dean by leading cardinals, Pope Francis guaranteed that the process would be carried out according to his own wishes.

Which of his potential successors would be best for the Jews? An ideal result would be continuity with progressive aspirations towards mutual Jewish-Catholic understanding, minus some of the disconcerting statements the Pope made recently regarding the Middle East crisis, which have aggrieved Jewish Vatican watchers.

For example, there is Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna, Italy, and a close ally of Pope Francis. A defender of minority groups, Zuppi pledged in 2023 that the “end of antisemitism” was an “educational, religious and civic commitment of the Italian Church.” He termed Hamas “the worst enemy of the Palestinian people” and pointed to education as an essential means of avoiding future war and conflict.

Another possible successor who might be more careful about his pronouncements on Jews as well as other minorities would be Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Archdiocese of Manila, The Philippines. Potentially the first Asian pope, in 2019 Tagle, then-Archbishop of Manila, visited Beit Yaacov Synagogue, an Orthodox congregation in Makati, Metro Manila, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Israel-Vatican ties. He has advocated a sense of Catholic-Jewish mutual belonging and acceptance.

If these, or other putative candidates were elected to the papacy, as opposed to hidebound traditionalists, then the legacy of Pope Francis for interreligious dialogue should continue. Indeed, with more closely controlled rhetoric, mutual understanding might even increase.

Understandably, some Jews were distressed when the Pope declared out of context during an audience in 2021 that the Torah does not “give life.” He suggested instead that “[t]hose who seek life need to look to the promise and to its fulfillment in Christ.” After objections were expressed, the Pope explained he was referring to a specific teaching of Saint Paul’s in the New Testament, not passing his own judgment on the Torah.

Even Vatican News, the official portal of the Holy See, the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City, admitted that another remark by the Pope required contextualizing to be properly understood. In a “Letter to the Catholics of the Middle East,” he cited a passage from the Gospel of John, which had been misused by Nazis and contemporary antisemites such as Robert Gregory Bowers, perpetrator of the 2018 Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh.

Vatican News noted that, given the difficulty of understanding biblical texts, explanations should always be offered, which were notably absent in the Pope’s initial statement. Nevertheless, readers were reminded, the Pope stressed in 2024 that the Church “rejects every form of anti-Judaism and antisemitism, unequivocally condemning manifestations of hatred towards Jews and Judaism as a sin against God.”

Whether in individual dialogue with the Israeli historian of religion Karma Ben-Johanan or through a Vatican project to combat online antisemitism in Europe, progress has continued in mutual tolerance under the aegis of Pope Francis.

Useful initiatives like “Translate Hate: The Catholic Edition,” coproduced by U.S. bishops and the American Jewish Committee (AJC) aiming to stop the use of antisemitic language were released to muted press coverage, despite being termed a “groundbreaking project for Catholic-Jewish relations” by Rabbi Noam Marans, director of Interreligious Affairs at the AJC.

Yet another constructive, if underrecognized, activity last year was a shared research project on the Ten Commandments and their Jewish and Christian interpretations, between the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome and the Isaac Abarbanel University Institute in Buenos Aires, the first and only Jewish university in South America.

Initiated at the behest of the Pope himself, who during a trip to Israel made the first pilgrimage by any pontiff to the tomb of Theodor Herzl, this type of effort offers encouragement in the face of abiding misstatements and misunderstandings.

Whatever influence a moral voice can have over the current tragic debacle of American social and political life may be helpful. So Pope Francis, despite his occasional missteps, and his successor, if his plans are realized, may prove to be godsends after all.

Benjamin Ivry is a frequent Forward contributor.

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