Pope Francis waves from a balcony, on the day he delivers his “Urbi et Orbi” (To the city and the world) message at St. Peter’s Square, on Easter Sunday, at the Vatican, March 31, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi

Pope Francis, who died on Monday at the age of 88 after leading the Catholic Church for 12 years, became an increasingly vocal critic of Israel’s war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza in the months before his death.

The Vatican announced that Francis, who just one day earlier entered St. Peter’s Square in an open-air popemobile for the first time since surviving double pneumonia, died after a cerebral stroke, which put him into a coma and led to irreversible heart failure.

During his pontificate, Francis strongly condemned antisemitism and promoted interfaith dialogue between Jewish and Catholic communities. However, he also drew the ire of pro-Israel supporters and Jewish leaders, including the chief rabbi of Rome, for his sharp words against the Jewish state.

In December, he unveiled a nativity scene which featured a depiction of an infant Jesus wrapped in a keffiyeh — a traditional Arab headdress that has been repurposed after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel to signal support for the anti-Israel activist movement. Some observers suggested that the scene in St. Peter’s Square — which was titled “Nativity of Bethlehem 2024” and designed by two artists from Bethlehem, Johny Andonia and Faten Nastas Mitwasi — effectively erased Jesus’s Jewish roots.

“The pope’s inauguration of a nativity scene that showed baby Jesus cradled in a Palestinian keffiyeh is an affront to Jesus, the Bible, and the 80 percent of Christians who have fled Bethlehem since the Palestinian Authority took over the city,” Laurie Cardoza-Moore, president of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, said of the display at the time.

“Let’s be clear. The pope can’t rewrite the Bible — Jesus was a Jew from Judea, not a Palestinian. He was born to a Jewish mother in Bethlehem, in Judea — there was no Palestine,” Cardoza-Moore continued. 

In November 2024, Francis released a book which condemned Israel for the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza. The pope accused Israel, without evidence, of inflicting a “famine” in Gaza and suggested that the Jewish state’s military tactics could be tantamount to a “genocide.” The Catholic faith leader also praised Jordan and Lebanon for accepting war refugees while not mentioning either country’s human rights issues.

“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,” Francis wrote. 

Hezbollah, a terrorist group based out of southern Lebanon, pummeled northern Israeli communities almost daily with missiles, rockets, and drones following the Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel perpetrated by Hamas, another Iran-backed terrorist group. The Lebanese Islamist movement fired over 10,000 projectiles at Israel over a year. About 70,000 Israelis were forced to evacuate their homes in northern Israel and flee to other parts of the country amid the unrelenting attacks.

Meanwhile, approximately 174,000 individuals of Palestinian descent currently reside in Jordan and are not eligible for citizenship within the state. These individuals are referred to as “ex-Gazans” and are generally excluded from state-run social support and health programs. Jordanians of Palestinian ancestry are generally underrepresented in the nation’s parliament and public universities partially due to discrimination and social barriers. 

“According to some experts,” Francis continued, “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.”

The pope later clarified his remarks, explaining that he does not necessarily believe the war in Gaza constitutes “genocide” but should still be “investigated.”

“I did not claim that Israel committed genocide,” he stated. “I was shown materials from the war, and I said that if this is true, then it needs to be investigated. I understand what is happening in Gaza. I think Hamas should no longer exist in the world, but the war should also not be prolonged.”

Francis’s increasingly sharp words led Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, spiritual leader of Rome’s Jewish community, in January to criticize the pope for unfairly focusing his attention on Israel compared to other ongoing world conflicts, including those in Sudan, Yemen, Syria, and Ethiopia.

“Selective indignation … weakens the pope’s strength,” the chief rabbi of Rome said. “A pope cannot divide the world into children and stepchildren and must denounce the sufferings of all. This is exactly what the pope does not do.”

In his Easter 2025 message, Francis expressed empathy for the plight of Palestinians and the suffering of Israelis, calling on the Hamas terrorist group to release the remaining hostages in Gaza and for Israel to cease its military campaign. 

“I express my closeness to the sufferings … of all the Israeli people and the Palestinian people,” the pope said in his message. “I appeal to the warring parties: call a ceasefire, release the hostages and come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace.”

Despite his sharp criticism of Israel, Francis has repeatedly expressed public empathy for the families of Israeli hostages in Gaza. 

In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks against Israel, Francis said that he prays “for those families who saw a feast day turn into a day of mourning, and I ask that the hostages be immediately released.”

The pope also met with family members of hostages in April 2024 to hear their stories. Following the meeting, Ashley Waxman Bakshi, the relative of a hostage, said the pope was “very clear about his solidarity for the release of the hostages.”

Despite the pontiff’s tumultuous relations with Israel, leaders within the Jewish state paid their respects to the Catholic faith leader, recognizing his significance to Christians globally. 

Israeli President Isaac Herzog praised Francis as “a man of deep faith and boundless compassion.”

“He rightly saw great importance in fostering strong ties with the Jewish world and in advancing interfaith dialogue as a path toward greater understanding and mutual respect,” Herzog said.