The Position of the Pope and the Catholic Church against the Occupation of Palestine

Throughout history, Catholics repeatedly tried to beat and adapt the Bible, especially tried to remove idolatry and paganism elements from the Old Testament.
The Catholic Church, despite the revisions and adjustments in its vision of Jews, maintained their strong position against this tribe.
The church, originally with the enemy sees the Jews because they turned to Jesus Christ and to invite him disbelieve. Jesus also repeatedly them to "unwise astray Israel" as it was described. Thus, for Catholics, Jews, apostates, infidels and accused of killing Jesus Christ.
In the earliest days of Christianity, a tendency and movement appeared toward abolishing the validity of the "Old Testament" and brought it out of authentic religious sources; but on the other hand, another current of thought was found that considered the removal of the Old Testament as harmful for Christianity; because this would violate the right of Jews’ inheritance of the church. Thus, this process suggested the virtual interpretation and the content paraphrase of Torah, in order to break out of the Old Testament pagan elements.
Accordingly, Catholics don’t have the least belief of what is known as the return of the Jews to Palestine, and do not regard any new developments for these people because in their view, with the manifestation of Jesus, their credit has expired.
Catholic Church figures believe that the existing interpretation of the Old Testament, that has spoken of the return of the Jews to Palestine and their bright future, is not in the dignity of the Jewish people and is not applicable to them, but it is virtually applicable to the Catholic Church; because of the great sin the Jews had committed, God banished them from Palestine to Babylon, and since they rejected the invitation of Jesus, once again, God exiled them, and thus the link of the Jews with Palestine was forever broken.
The bishop of the Catholic Church in Damascus published the same content in a book on 17/11/1977. And so he explained:
My co-religionists have forgotten that Jesus Christ, through seven times accursing the Old Testament scholars (the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 23), he transformed the decrees of Torah and has finished the book with this firm decree: "Behold, your house is left desolate forever." (Matthew, chapter 23, including 38). Hence, Jesus' prophecy came true and the biblical promise abolished the Holy Land.
In the case of the Zionist movement from the beginning, with the establishment of the Bawl city conference (1897) it was clear that this move is in conflict with the beliefs of Catholics and the Vatican’s position. As when the Theodor Hertzel met with Pope Pius X on 26 January 1904, Pope declared his clear disagreement with the Zionist movement and Jewish immigration to Palestine.
During the meeting, the Pope so patiently and calmly listened to the words of Hertzel’s speech that he was confident that Pope is affected enough by his speech. But after he finished his speech, the Pope said to him, if you settle in Palestine, our final help would be to send priests to perform baptism (and Christianizing) and we'll build you church.
But political Zionism saw itself requiring support and assistance of the Catholic Church, although this demands the Christianizing of the Jews (!).
Ms. Ruth Blau, who is a non-Zionist Jew, states this content of Hertzel’s notes:
I had wanted to solve the Jews’ problems at least with the help of Catholic Church, and I had wanted, more than anything, to attract the support of the Church’s heads to myself, so that through them, I could earn the permission of meeting the pope and telling him that: You defend us against the Jews’ opponents and I in return, will create a Jewish national movement so that the Jews themselves willingly, and with pride and honor, will convert to Christianity. But the leaders of this movement, and especially me, will stay upon the Judaism so that from this position we can recommend our co-religionists to accept the new religion, convert out children to Christianity.
Despite the clear opposition of the Catholic Church with the Jewish people throughout history, this church made frequent changes and adjustments with the ups and downs of the events of the twentieth century and was influenced by existing political pressures.
Pope Benoit XV in his speech on March 1919, in response to the Balfour Declaration, said:
What is providing the cause of our grief and all religious Christians, is that the pagans are in a superior and important position, and particularly that the Christian holy places be in the hands of non-Christians, makes us even more depressed.
After World War II, while some Catholics regarding the behavior and crimes of the Nazis, sympathized with the Jews and the Zionists, the Catholic Church remained silent.
In the year 1947, emphasized and supported resolution of the United Nations based on the triad division of Palestine and internationalization of Jerusalem and in 1948, against the establishment of the Zionist regime, with a neutral position, they neither recognized it and nor did they condemn it.
But in 1956, with the advent of the national and common tendencies in the Arab world, the Vatican, took a step closer to Israel and emphasized the Judeo-Christian heritage. Catholic Church of America also announced Israel as a Western government that stand against the communists, who are allies of the Arabs.
In 1960, Pope John XXIII, officially apologized for the role that the Catholic Church had on opposition to Judaism, but the second World Congress of Catholic churches (1962-1965) was a turning point in relations between the Vatican with the Jews and the Zionist regime; because in this conference, it was announced that Christianity was formed in a Jewish environment and the invitation of Jesus Christ and other prophets of Israel was based on Jewish beliefs.
At the same meeting, the Jews were acquitted from the issue of the cross and killing of Christ.
So it was that Pope John XXIII, with a new rotation and flexibility, put the Jews under his special favor and grace, because of the hardships and sufferings that the Jews endured during the Second World War and issued the world’s Catholics’ first statement about this clan, took away the responsibility for the murder and crucifixion of Jesus Christ from the contemporary Jews.
However, he did not acquit these people entirely from the charge; but he only stated that the guilt of the Jews who committed the murder of Jesus Christ is not upon the Jews of today.
But the Jews were not satisfied with this amount of appeasement and respect of the pope and said that the mentioned statement has not issued the concernment of the Jews and has not mentioned the Crematorium and has not officially recognized the Israeli government and has not put any effort in respecting the Jews…
In January 1973, Pope Paul VI, Golda Meir, accepted to meet with the Israeli prime minister. Speaking about Israel was one of the topics of negotiations between the two sides.
Although America’s Catholic Church’s position was closer in relative to the Vatican’s position in the case of the Jews and Israel, but after the meeting, the Vatican confirmed and supported Israel through their press, expressions and communities.
Of course the policies of the United States, in support and confirmation of Israel was very effective and determining in the turn of positions of Vatican.
Following the flexibility, clear statements and expressions were issued by some bishops and leaders of the Catholic Church, in support of political Zionism.
In the mid-seventies of the twentieth century, the Vatican's position was changed against Zionism and some interviews were conducted with the Zionist Jewish organizations.
In 1975, a statement was issued by the Vatican authorities and in it, the Jewish religion was recognized as a "rich religious heritage" and emphasized the acquittal of the Jews of the past sins... Until in the mid-eighties, Pope’s new official and new statement was issued based on Jewish origin of Christ.
In 1992, Pope John II, with the publication of the book of the teachings of the Catholic Church, in addition to emphasizing the reliability of all components of the Old and New Testament (Torah and Gospel) from the perspective of the Catholic Church, on page 99, 445, with a detailed statement of the lineage of Jesus Christ, he introduced Jesus as the descendant of Judah, son of Jacob, the prophet of Israel and thus he linked Jesus Christ with the ultimate ancestor of Jews placed him in the progeny of these people!
No doubt, the establishment of this blood link between Jesus and the Jewish people includes numerous properties and effects. From one side, the last vestiges of a feud between Judaism and Christianity is destroyed and on the other hand, the Catholics are made close to American Protestants in the belief that "Jesus Christ was born a Jew and was one of the great prophets of the Israelites".
Since the nineties, the Vatican slowly took a peaceful approach with regard to the Jews and in 1993 signed an agreement with the Zionist regime that led to the normalization of the two sides’ relations and establishment of appropriate diplomatic relations between them (June 1994).
In November 1997, Vatican hold a conference as "roots of enmity with the Jews in Christian communities". The participants in this conference, to be fair, asked for a review and modifications and adjustments to some of the existing materials in the New Testament, especially the Gospel of Matthew and the Epistles of Paul and emphasized that Christians and Jews commonly believe in Yahwe (the God of the Jews).
In the closing ceremony of this conference, Pope’s special message was read admitting that "Christianity’s position against Nazism has not been good”. In his message the Pope also called for "reform of the Christian view of Jews".
In 1998, for the first time in the Vatican on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Israel, a Jewish celebration was established with the presence of Cardinal Cassidy, the head of the Vatican and the Jews’ Relations Committee, and also with the participation of Vatican’s foreign minister and Israel's ambassador in Vatican.
In March of that year, the Vatican began publishing an official document entitled "Reflections on the case of Crematorium", which in addition to this, the history of enmity between Catholics and Jews was explained and announced that Christians are ethically obligated to never repeat the Crematorium.
Nevertheless, despite all the compromises and flexibility made in positioning of the Vatican and the pope himself against Judaism and Zionism, the Zionists expressed the ultimate irreverence and disrespect to the Pope, during his visit to the occupied territories.
According to Der Spiegel, during the visit of Pope Paul VI (1963-1978), from Palestine (1964), when he was passing through the streets of Jerusalem, the Israeli right-wing said slogans against him and cried that "Pope out" and "Pope is Nazi". They followed Pope everywhere with their loud and vulgar slogans and even after when the helicopter carrying the Pope landed, they manipulated and destroyed it and painted sharp slogans and symbols of the SS o it.
These right-wings are those who, when Rukh Goldstein opened fire on worshipers of Ibrahimi shrine and killing 29 of them while prostrating, and injured a large number of them, were parts of Israel's ruling party and had been in power for many years.
This way of welcoming the Pope was at the time that in the Jews’ view, Pope Paul VI, was the best Pope in history; because he was...
The first Pope to visit a Jewish temple.
The first pope to visit the Jewish holy places.
The first Pope to stand against the Jews’ Wailing Wall with respect.
The first pope to talk with Israeli authorities, and named Israel as a state.
However, he was not satisfied with this level of comfort and companionship. Although Pope Paul VI, because of two thousand years of Christian opposition and conflict with the Jews, had apologized, but the apologetic that the Jews had expected, was far beyond these words and statements. They demanded an official apology from the Pope of the Vatican's position on the performance of the Nazis against the Jews during the Second World War; but who does not know that this was meant to be considered as the responsibility for part of the crimes of Nazism?
In fact, it was these right-wings that wanted to weaken one of the foundations of the Christian faith and break the sanctity and holiness dam of the Pope.