Post by Fr David Neuhaus SJ | 16 March 2026
Neither Catholic Zionism nor anti-Semitism
Two colleagues who are also friends in the United States, Julie Schumacher Cohen, Assistant Vice President for Community Engagement and Government Affairs at the Jesuit University of Scranton, and Jordan Denari Duffner, a Catholic theologian, professor, and author who focuses on Muslim-Christian relations, interreligious dialogue, Islamophobia, and Israel-Palestine, have written an important article on Catholic attitudes to Zionism and anti-Semitism.
The article appears on the site Contending Modernities, of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. I strongly recommend reading and reflecting on the article in the light of the confusion that has been sowed by the contending sides in the Palestine/Israel conflict. The authors argue that Zionism is not consistent with Catholic teaching. At the same time, Catholics must resist all forms of anti-Semitism. They insist: “Catholics cannot repair their relationship with Jews at the expense of Palestinians, who have experienced Zionism as subjugation, dispossession, and discrimination.”
Julie and Jordan are the authors of a forthcoming volume (published by Orbis Press and due out in the second half of 2026) on Palestine, Israel & Catholic Social Teaching: A Guide.
Their article “No Catholic Brand of Christian Zionism, or Tolerance for Antisemitism” (12.3.2026), can be read here: