Former Miss California Carrie Prejean Boller, a member of President Donald Trump\u2019s Religious Liberty Commission, said she doesn\u2019t embrace Zionism because of her Catholic faith, despite Catholic teaching that does not oppose Israel as a nation or the Jewish people.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am a Catholic, and Catholics don\u2019t embrace Zionism,\u201d Boller said at the fifth hearing of the Trump-appointed Religious Liberty Commission focusing on the topic of antisemitism in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 9.<\/p>\n
L'insegnamento cattolico<\/a> does not explicitly oppose Zionism, the movement supporting Jewish self\u2011determination in a homeland in Israel. Israel is seen as God\u2019s chosen people through whom God revealed himself and prepared the way for the coming of Jesus Christ. The Catholic Church condanna universalmente l'antisemitismo<\/a>. The Church recognizes Israel\u2019s diritto fondamentale<\/a> to exist.<\/p>\n Boller issued several social media posts<\/a> after the hearing. She ha scritto<\/a>: \u201cForcing people to affirm Zionism on a \u2018Religious Liberty\u2019 Commission is the opposite of religious freedom. I will not resign, and I will not be bullied for following my Catholic conscience.\u201d<\/p>\n The commission and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Yeshiva University President Rabbi Ari Berman said at the hearing that while one does not have to support the policies of the Israeli government, \u201cby denying the rights of Jews to have their own state while not saying the same for any other people, that is a double standard hypocrisy and antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n Both Berman and Yitzchok Frankel, a law student and former defendant in a case<\/a> against Regents of the University of California over anti-Jewish protests that took place in wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, said \u201canti-Zionism is antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n Boller, author of \u201cStill Standing: The Untold Truth of My Fight Against Gossip, Hate, and Political Attacks,\u201d countered that \u201cas a Catholic,\u201d she disagrees with the notion that \u201cthe new modern state of Israel has any biblical prophecy meaning at all.\u201d She repeatedly pressed the Jewish panelists on whether her views made her an antisemite before the commission\u2019s chair, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, halted the exchange.<\/p>\n Boller told EWTN News that members of the commission asked her to resign a few months ago but that she refused. She also said several members asked to meet with her before the hearing to discourage her from making her planned remarks. \u201cThey were seeing what I was going to say in the hearing, trying to silence me,\u201d she said. \u201cI told them I won\u2019t be silenced.\u201d<\/p>\n Later in the hearing, panelist Ryan Anderson, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, joined the dialogue on Catholic teaching regarding the Jewish people and read passages from both Nostra Aetate<\/em><\/a> and the writings of Pope Benedict XVI.<\/p>\n Anderson cited the following passage, which states that while \u201cthe Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ,\u201d it is the case that \u201cwhat happened in his passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today.\u201d The paragraph further states that the Jewish people should not be regarded as rejected by God \u201cas if this followed from the Holy Scriptures.\u201d<\/p>\n Anderson called on Father Thomas Ferguson of Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Alexandria, Virginia, who sits on the panel\u2019s advisory board<\/a> of religious leaders, to provide further analysis on the Catholic Church\u2019s position on Jewish-Catholic relations.<\/p>\n \u201cAbout the responsibility for the death of Jesus,\u201d Ferguson said, \u201che\u2019s not dead. He\u2019s alive, he is risen.\u201d<\/p>\n The pastor emphasized the Church\u2019s view that Jesus gave up his life freely and sacrificially. He also noted that, in alignment with the passage cited by Anderson from Nostra Aetate<\/em>, Jesus \u201cmade an atonement as an offering for the forgiveness of the sins of every person, every time and place.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s how Catholics understand who is responsible for the death of Jesus on the cross: It\u2019s all of us,\u201d Ferguson said.<\/p>\n Ferguson said: \u201cIf you are seeking to know God through the Scriptures of the Old Testament and the New Testament,\u201d it is not possible to be Christian and antisemitic, \u201cbecause we have the same father and faith.\u201d The more Catholics embrace their responsibility to know God through the Scriptures, he said, \u201cthe more we will know our common patrimony.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCarrie Prejean Boller does not speak for the Catholic Church,\u201d Simone Rizkallah, director of the Coalition of Catholics Against Antisemitism<\/a> and host of the \u201cBeyond Rome\u201d podcast, which seeks to reconnect Catholics to their roots in the Near East, told EWTN. \u201cHer claim that Catholics do not embrace Zionism is not merely mistaken \u2014 it is reckless, historically uninformed, and deeply misleading to both Catholics and the wider public.\u201d<\/p>\n Rizkallah pointed out that the recognition of Israel\u2019s right to exist fundamentally amounts to \u201cprecisely what Zionism means,\u201d though Catholics themselves may not always be accustomed to using the word formally.<\/p>\n \u201cCatholics who affirm Israel\u2019s right to exist and to self-determination \u2014 whether or not they personally use the label \u2014 are, in essence, affirming that same principle,\u201d she said. \u201cThe Church is therefore neither anti-Zionist nor, certainly, antisemitic; she explicitly condemns antisemitism and calls the faithful to reject it in all its forms.\u201d<\/p>\n At the same time, Rizkallah emphasized that the Catholic Church does not define Zionism using the same \u201ctheological frameworks found in some strands of Protestant Christian Zionism.\u201d Namely, she said, \u201cCatholic theology does not teach that the modern state of Israel represents the direct fulfillment of biblical prophecy or a predetermined eschatological event.\u201d <\/p>\n Rizkallah described the Church\u2019s position as \u201cboth clear and nuanced,\u201d recognizing the modern state of Israel\u2019s political legitimacy, but not grounding it in prophetic claims.<\/p>\n Ultimately, she concluded, \u201cprecision matters. When public figures speak carelessly about the Church\u2019s teaching, they do not merely express a personal opinion \u2014 they create confusion, distort Catholic doctrine, and undermine serious efforts at Catholic-Jewish understanding. Catholics deserve better than slogans masquerading as theology.\u201d<\/p>\n The Religious Liberty Commission has had four previous hearings on protecting religious freedom<\/a> in the U.S., Libert\u00e0 religiosa<\/a>\u00a0in education<\/a>, and religious freedom in the military<\/a>.<\/p>\nResponse from other Catholic members<\/h2>\n
Catholic reaction<\/h2>\n