Pope Leo XIV: We Reject All Forms of Hatred
On St. John Paul II’s memorial, the Holy Father links Catholic–Jewish friendship to human dignity, care for the poor, and religious freedom.
Pope Leo XIV received a delegation of the American Jewish Committee in the Apostolic Palace on October 22. The audience fell on the liturgical memorial of St. John Paul II, whom the Holy Father credited with greatly fostering friendship between Catholics and Jews. Following St. John Paul II, he said the Church’s dialogue with the Jewish people must continue.
The Pope set the encounter in a common spiritual inheritance. “Rooted in our shared spiritual heritage, this friendship also calls us to defend human dignity, serve the poor, protect religious freedom and promote justice and peace,” he said. He added that the bond is not a private sentiment but a shared duty toward the vulnerable and toward peace.
A Shared Refusal of Hatred
Essential to that commitment, he continued, “is the rejection of all forms of religious and ethnic hatred and discrimination.” Pope Leo XIV reiterated the Church’s firm stance against antisemitism. He recalled Nostra Aetate and the ongoing dialogue born of that conciliar declaration, and he warned that differences must not fuel prejudice. Catholics and Jews, he stressed, together reject all forms of hatred.
Leaders of the American Jewish Committee presented the Pope with artwork celebrating the bond between Jews and Catholics. The gift gave visible form to a relationship the Holy Father described as rooted in shared heritage and ordered to the defense of human dignity.
The meeting took place while Pope Leo XIV was recovering from recent surgery. His decision to welcome the delegation nonetheless underscored the importance of interreligious friendship in his pontificate. Even during convalescence, the Holy Father kept before both communities the tasks he named: defending human dignity, serving the poor, protecting religious freedom and promoting justice and peace.
By receiving the American Jewish Committee on the memorial of St. John Paul II, Pope Leo XIV joined memory to mission—honoring a predecessor who advanced Catholic–Jewish friendship and renewing, with Jewish leaders, a common refusal of religious and ethnic hatred.