In his new book, published on November 19 in Italy, Spain and Latin America, Pope Francis legitimized the accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Francis noted:

In the Middle East, where the open doors of nations like Jordan or Lebanon continue to be a salvation for millions of people fleeing conflicts in the region: I am thinking above all of those who leave Gaza in the midst of the famine that has struck their Palestinian brothers and sisters given the difficulty of getting food and aid into their territory. According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide. It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.

These comments come are a stark contrast to the pope’s restrained tone regarding Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Israelis. Thomas Jansen from German conservative newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung commented:

The pope pleads for genocide allegations in the Gaza war to be investigated. That is not his job—and it also shows once again that his compassion is directed primarily at Hamas. … When he recently received freed Israeli hostages in the Vatican, the word “terrorism” did not cross his lips. The Vatican calls this neutrality. However, if Francis wanted to fulfill this requirement, he would have to refrain from making such statements.

The genocide accusation implies that Israel is not acting out of a need to defend itself against a terrorist threat but rather wants to destroy the population of Gaza. By refusing to strongly condemn Hamas’s atrocities and speaking of the suffering of the people in Gaza only, the pope fuels this false allegation.

From the very beginning of Israel’s response to the terrorist attack, Pope Francis tried to direct the attention away from the aggressor. This reality caused Jansen to compare the Vatican’s response to the terrorist attacks against Israel with its response 80 years ago to Nazi Germany. In “The Vatican Has Learned Nothing,” Jansen wrote:

Eighty years after the Holocaust, the silence of a pope is straining the relationship between Israel and the Vatican. And this pope is not called Pius xii. His name is Francis. Since the Hamas attack on Israel, the head of the Catholic Church has consistently avoided making a clear distinction between aggressor and victim.

Instead, the pope makes sweeping denunciations of “terrorism” in the Middle East conflict, apparently referring primarily to the Israeli side. Francis allowed the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem—the highest Catholic representative in Israel—to sign a statement from Christian churches unchallenged, which unilaterally blames Israel for the escalation of the conflict.

This is a strong allegation, but it is not without reason. As Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in our January issue:

The day after the massacres, Pope Francis expressed sorrow over what is “happening in Israel,” and said, “Every war is a defeat.” He did not condemn Hamas. Three days later, after briefly recognizing “the right of those who were attacked to defend themselves,” he directed his attention to the “total siege facing Palestinians in Gaza, where there have also been many innocent victims.” Vatican News said he “invited both parties to restraint.” A couple of weeks later, the pope spoke with Joe Biden on the telephone, and both pledged to supply Palestinians in Gaza with aid and pursue the goal of granting the Palestinians their own state. Francis also had a call with the president of Iran, who said he asked the pope to help stop Israel from attacking Hamas in Gaza. …

The pope did worse than try to make the blood-soaked terrorists and the Israeli people equally guilty: He made the Israelis look much more guilty!

Quite a few commentators have come to see that the pope’s comments are not helping end the war. But Mr. Flurry goes deeper and explains the goals of the Catholic Church, noting:

One of the most recent clues came the month before the massacres. In September, the Vatican’s foreign minister made a statement that Jerusalem, which is controlled by the Israelis, should be subjected to an internationally guaranteed statute to ensure “the equal rights and duties of the faithful of the three monotheistic religions.” Israel already gives equal rights to Christians, Jews and Muslims—even allowing Muslims to control the Temple Mount and deny Jews access to most of it. This is not about guaranteeing religious rights to various religions: It’s about getting more control for the Catholic Church over Jerusalem!

To learn more about the Catholic Church’s ambitions in this war, it is critical to understand not only history but also Bible prophecy. This is explained in detail in Chapter 6 “The Last Crusade” in The Eternal Has Chosen Jerusalem, by Gerald Flurry.