By Andrea Kleinhenz
Who oversees the Catholic Church writ large? Pope Leo or the American Jewish Committee (AJC)? At this point in history—and the Catholic Church has had a long history with the AJC—it is a fair question to ask. Never more so than now, considering the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
The U.S. Conference of Bishops (USCCB) ,national organization to promote the greater good of mankind and the AJC, a community relations group that advocates on behalf of Israel and against anti-Jewish bigotry in the U.S. have worked together for more than eight decades. Their partnership gained significant traction in 1965 when Vatican II produced a document called Nostra Aetate (In Our Age) which focused on a new openness to non-Christian religions, including Islam and Judaism.
Yet much of Nostra Aetate is dedicated to improving the relationship between the Church and Judaism, with Islam relegated to a mere paragraph or two.
Further evidence of the strengthening bonds between the two organizations occurred in 1987 during the First Intifada (uprising), largely nonviolent, when Palestinians revolted against Israel’s then 20-year military occupation. In that same year, Pope Paul II reaffirmed the “Jewish people’s right to a homeland, which laid to rest suspicions that the Church had theological objections to the existence of a sovereign Jewish state in the Holy Land and led to the 1993 Vatican recognition of the State of Israel through the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and the Holy See.” https://www.ajc.org/news/from-regret-to-acclaim-a-jewish-reaction-to-nostra-aetate
Fast forward to April 2025 when Mondoweiss News published breaking news about a joint project between the U.S. bishops and AJC called Translate Hate: Catholic Edition, a 61-page online resource cited as an educational tool to tutor readers about anti-Jewish tropes and conspiracies. AJC produced an original edition in 2019. https://mondoweiss.net/2025/04/palestinian-christians-reject-u-s-catholic-bishops-collaboration-with-pro-israel-group/
In the article, Kairos Palestine, a faith-based organization promoting liberation from Israeli occupation, denounced USCCB’s failure to include input from Palestinian Christians and criticized its collaboration with “a leading pro-Israel advocacy group in creating an online tool that ultimately defines Palestinian resistance as antisemitic.”
As for the timing of the publication, Translate Hate was released during “immense suffering” of a people undergoing mass killing, starvation and displacement in a genocidal war on Gaza and the West Bank. The Kairos letter also refers to fabrications contained in the online resource, i.e.: “accusations of settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing in Palestine are “categorically false,” disregarding overwhelming evidence to the contrary from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International as well as Israeli historians.
It seems inconceivable that the USCCB failed to stand in solidarity with the oppressed, an important tenet of Catholic social teaching. Perhaps the sharp rebuke by Rome’s chief Jewish rabbi over the late Pope Francis’ “ramped up” criticism of Israel’s military campaign is one reason for their reticence. The pope, however, continued to advocate for the Palestinians. Most notably he prayed with parishioners of Holy Family Catholic Church, the only Catholic church in Gaza and called the church every night until two days before his death in April 2025. In July of that same year, the church was struck by an Israeli tank, resulting in the death of three parishioners and wounding the priest who was close to Pope Francis.
As of 2026, despite a ceasefire, Palestinians are still dying through overt and covert strategies. After more than two years, the Catholic Church remains silent despite devastating reports from the World Health Organization and Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) among others.
Has silencing replaced advocacy in the Church? Unfortunately, the very question is considered suspect. On page 48 of Translate Hate, the Catholic version says “silencing” is considered antisemitic “when it goes beyond legitimate critique of government policies to questioning the right of the State of Israel to exist or the right of the Jewish people to self-determination.”
Likewise, it should be evident that silence as practiced by the church, the government, and the U.S. media has contributed greatly to the unprecedented suffering of the Palestinian people.
In a time when massive amounts of aid need to flood into Gaza, it’s not happening. In a time when current survivors of an ongoing genocide desperately need healthcare aid and food, it’s not happening. What has happened is USCCB’s decision not to stand in solidarity with the oppressed per Catholic Social Teaching. U.S. bishops must turn down the volume that has diverted them from this imperative.
Only then may they hear that their silence has amplified into the sound of an ongoing genocide with its cacophony of bombs, buildings exploding, screams, cries, suffering and the drift of toxic dust filled with a pulverized people.
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