Rabbi Yehiel Poupko: A Jewish appreciation of Pope Francis

Chicago Tribune

23-04-2025

On Sept. 11, 2014, at the annual meeting of the Jewish Federation of Chicago, Cardinal Francis George told the audience: 'Before I went to the Conclave of the College of Cardinals this past February to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, I asked Rabbi Poupko, 'What would the Jewish community like to see in the next pope?' He answered: 'We need a pope who knows us.''
This is who was elected pope. As archbishop of Buenos Aires, then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio attended Rosh Hashanah services at the Benei Tikva synagogue in September 2007. Bergoglio told the congregation that he was there 'like a pilgrim, together with you, my elder brothers.'
In 2010, Rabbi Abraham Skorka and Bergoglio began memorializing their two decades of conversation in a book. Friends since 1990, the two had much to share. In the introduction to the book they co-wrote, 'On Heaven and Earth,' Francis described their friendship: 'With Rabbi Skorka I never had to compromise my Catholic identity, just like he never had to with his Jewish identity.'
The Jewish people have good memories of Francis. One of the gestures of Francis' friendship with the Jewish people came early in his papacy. In 2013, in a letter to journalist Eugenio Scalfari in the Italian newspaper la Repubblica, Francis responded to the question: 'What we should say to our Jewish brothers about the promise made to them by God: Has it all come to nothing?'
'This question, believe me, is a radical one for us Christians because with the help of God, especially in the light of the Second Vatican Council, we have rediscovered that the Jewish people remain for us the holy root from which Jesus was born. I too have cultivated many friendships through the years with my Jewish brothers in Argentina and often while in prayer, as my mind turned to the terrible experience of the Shoah, I looked to God,' he wrote.
'God has never neglected his faithfulness to the covenant with Israel, and that, through the awful trials of these last centuries, the Jews have preserved their faith in God. And for this, we, the Church and the whole human family, can never be sufficiently grateful to them.'
As the Germans murdered 6 million Jews, most of Christendom collaborated actively or passively with Nazism. In that time, the Jewish people gave witness to the one God. We alone were the sole sacred witness to the one God. Francis deepened that because he did not limit admiration and respect for Jewish witness to the period of the Shoah. He refers to 'the terrible trials of these centuries' in which 'the Jews have kept their faith in God.' He refers to the torment inflicted upon us by the Catholic Church and the Reformation churches throughout the ages. He affirms that the church and all of humanity will 'never be sufficiently grateful to them.' The pope affirms that Israel provided unique witness to the one God; that this unique witness came despite all the torment; and that Israel's faithfulness to the one God is a gift both to the church and to humanity. This is a remarkable affirmation of Judaism and the Jewish people.
People do not often pay enough attention to performance theology. Instead of issuing formal statements and teachings in well-reasoned theological papers, occasionally a pope will act out, will express in behavior, a religious idea.
In an act of performance theology while in Israel in 2014, Francis visited the grave of Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, the Jewish national liberation movement.
The honor paid Herzl at his last resting place is compelling. One hundred and 10 years earlier, on Jan. 26, 1904, Herzl had an audience with Pope Pius X. Herzl sought the pope's support for Zionism. The pope replied, 'We cannot give approval to this movement. We cannot prevent the Jews from going to Jerusalem — but we could never sanction it. The soil of Jerusalem … has been sanctified by the life of Jesus Christ. As the Head of the Church, I cannot tell you anything different. The Jews have not recognized our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people.'
Pius X established what was the popular and official Christian attitude to Zionism and the establishment of the state of Israel. Christian theology has had a difficult time accounting for the Jewish return to the ancient homeland.
Francis' act of honor and respect to Herzl and to Zionism demonstrated that the Roman Catholic Church no longer holds any theological objection to the Jewish return to sovereignty in the ancient homeland.
In every relationship, there are disappointments. It is because of Francis' friendship extended to the Jewish people that several of his statements on Israel's war to prevent Hamas from annihilating Israel were received with pain.
The Jewish people will remember that as the sun set on Passover, Francis departed this life. He left behind the great Passover legacy, to ever seek freedom from slavery; to ever fulfill the mitzvah (commandment) to take care of the poor and the stranger.
In these days following his passing, we know that his abiding friendship for us will never be forgotten. Judaism holds that good deeds will ever endure. This is his gift and legacy.