Popes and Zionists: The Transnational Roman Catholic Church and the Palestine Question

Dr. Adrian Ciani, St. Augustine’s Seminary and Seneca College

This talk examines Roman Catholic attitudes on the rise of political Zionism, and looks specifically at the advocacy of American Catholics on this question, who I argue took a leading role in the Vatican’s advocacy on this issue. The talk begins with the visits of the very first Zionists to the Vatican, and traces the issue through the First World War, the interwar period and the Holocaust. Essentially, the talk examines transnational Catholic responses to Zionism in the period before the creation of Israel in 1948.