Pope Francis is the pope a lot of American Jews wish they had if they had a pope. In the two and a half years since Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the 266th head of the Catholic Church, he has captured hearts and stirred longing well beyond his global flock of more than a billion Catholics….
Holy yarmulkes, Batman, the Jews are going to the Vatican! Yes, Pope Francis has invited several of Hollywood’s most influential people – many of them Jews – to discuss the image of the Church in Western media according to Reps of the Pope approached the two CEOs of William Morris Endeavor, an entertainment and media…
Pope Francis criticized the world powers for failing to stop the Nazis from deporting Jews and other minority groups to death camps in Europe during World War II. “The great powers had photographs of the railway routes that the trains took to the concentration camps, like Auschwitz, to kill the Jews, and also the Christians,…
(JTA) — When considering the Vatican’s creep toward recognition of Palestinian statehood, think “Israel-Vatican” and not “Jewish-Catholic,” say Jewish officials involved in dialogue with the church. A May 13 announcement on an agreement regarding the functioning of the church in areas under Palestinian control raised eyebrows in its reference to the “State of Palestine.” The…
Pope Francis meant no offense to Israel by referring to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as being “an angel of peace” and intended to encourage harmony between the two sides, the Vatican said on Tuesday. Francis met Abbas at the Vatican on Saturday and used the words as he presented the Palestinian president with a large…
Last week, the Vatican edged close to formal recognition of a Palestinian state, finalizing a treaty in which for the first time, the Holy See makes explicit reference to a “state of Palestine.” Israel’s Foreign Ministry, while voicing disappointment at the move, was unusually circumspect in its initial response, stating that the use of the…
It’s funny how life keeps handing us surprises. Just now, for example, Pope Francis has launched a global campaign to combat climate change, and it’s meeting fierce resistance from Catholic conservatives. Who saw that coming? I thought I’d heard — from conservatives, if memory serves — that it’s liberals who habitually sin by substituting their…
NEW YORK (JTA) – Pope Francis will confer papal knighthood on Rabbi Arthur Schneier of Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue. Schneier, the founder of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation and a Holocaust survivor, is being honored for his work promoting peace and mutual understanding, according to Vatican officials. Schneier will formally become a knight of Saint…
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