Recently fake ‘conservative’ commentator Dinesh D’Sousa – who is also a bought and paid for pro-Israel lobbyist – reproduced an alleged quote from Pope John Paul II of the Roman Catholic Church which runs as follows:
‘“It is the Holy Land for everyone, but it is the Promised Land only to the Jews”
—Pope John Paul II’ (1)
Now this sounds likely a ringing endorsement of Zionism and Dispensationalist theology doesn’t it, but as with all quotes like this: we have to check the provenance of the quote to see whether it is genuine or not.
In this case this is not a direct quote from Pope John Paul II but rather is former Israeli Prime Minister – and general Zionist lunatic as well as a jewish supremacist – Ariel Sharon claiming that Pope John Paul II told him this in a conversation in 1999 when he invited the then Pope to the holy land for a state visit.
The quote itself comes from a pro-Israel puff-piece in ‘Vanity Fair’ magazine that is based on an interview done of Sharon by the jewish journalist David Margolick – (2) this is a derivative of the common Sephardi surname ‘Margolis’ – that was published on 6th January 2002.
This is the full quote with its accompanying context:
‘In 1999, when he invited the Pope to visit Israel for the millennium, Sharon told him something that he believes none of his deracinated Zionist predecessors have ever cared to say, but that Sharon tells all and sundry. “I said, ‘I am a Jew,’” he says. “‘I am a member of a Jewish government in Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish people for the last 3,000 years, and united and undivided capital of the state of Israel, with the Temple Mount—the holiest place of the Jewish people—in the center.’
“As a matter of fact the Pope listened and did not fall from the chair,” Sharon continues, with yet another laugh. “And then he said one thing. He said, ‘The land of Israel is holy for Jews, for Christians, for Muslims. But it has been promised only to the Jews.’
“Holy for all the others, promised only to the Jews,” Sharon repeats, a contented look on his face. “That is exactly what I felt.”’ (3)
The problem here is that we have absolutely no evidence other than Sharon’s claim that the Pope said these words and indeed no trace of any such sentiments is to be found in any of John Paul II’s other documents or works that touch on this issue as we can see in his speech in Jerusalem on 23rd March – several months after these comments were allegedly made to Sharon – suggest quite the opposite:
‘I am deeply moved as I follow in the footsteps of the countless pilgrims who before me have prayed in the Holy Places connected with God’s interventions. I am fully conscious that this Land is Holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Therefore my visit would have been incomplete without this meeting with you, distinguished religious leaders.’ (4)
As well as:
‘Drawing upon the riches of our respective religious traditions, we must spread awareness that today’s problems will not be solved if we remain ignorant of one another and isolated from one another. We are all aware of past misunderstandings and conflicts, and these still weigh heavily upon relationships between Jews, Christians and Muslims. We must do all we can to turn awareness of past offences and sins into a firm resolve to build a new future in which there will be nothing but respectful and fruitful cooperation between us.
The Catholic Church wishes to pursue a sincere and fruitful interreligious dialogue with the members of the Jewish faith and the followers of Islam. Such a dialogue is not an attempt to impose our views upon others. What it demands of all of us is that, holding to what we believe, we listen respectfully to one another, seek to discern all that is good and holy in each other’s teachings, and cooperate in supporting everything that favours mutual understanding and peace.
5. The Jewish, Christian and Muslim children and young people present here are a sign of hope and an incentive for us. Each new generation is a divine gift to the world. If we pass on to them all that is noble and good in our traditions, they will make it blossom in more intense brotherhood and cooperation.
If the various religious communities in the Holy City and in the Holy Land succeed in living and working together in friendship and harmony, this will be of enormous benefit not only to themselves but to the whole cause of peace in this region. Jerusalem will truly be a City of Peace for all peoples. Then we will all repeat the words of the Prophet: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. . . that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths” (Is 2:3).’ (5)
Further if the Pope had said anything of the kind it would go directly against both Catholic teaching and also his own agreements and policy as Catholic apologist Jimmy Akin explains:
‘For its part, the Catholic Church acknowledges that the Jewish people still have a special role in God’s plan. That’s something I’ve written about before. But the Church does not teach that the Jewish people have a right to possess the land of the modern state of Israel in the present day by divine promise. In fact, the Holy See has studiously avoided saying that.
It has even gone so far, in its 1993 Fundamental Agreement with Israel, to state:
The Holy See, while maintaining in every case the right to exercise its moral and spiritual teaching-office, deems it opportune to recall that, owing to its own character, it is solemnly committed to remaining a stranger to all merely temporal conflicts, which principle applies specifically to disputed territories and unsettled borders [art. 11:2].
In its specific application, this passage is referring to disputed territories like the West Bank and Gaza rather than to the territory of Israel as a whole, but the same principle applies in general. The Holy See treats the question of what people have title to what territory as a temporal affair and thus something that goes beyond the Church’s purview. The Church can certainly raise moral objections to various courses of action, like trying to forcibly kick out the people who currently have title to a territory. But the question of who has title is treated as a temporal rather than theological issue. The Church does not hold that any particular people has an immutable divine right to a particular territory.’ (6)
So put another way: our only source for this quote from Pope John Paul II is former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and we have no independent verification of it; thus because it also goes against Pope John Paul II (and the Vatican’s) own policies on Israel, official Catholic teaching and also fundamentally doesn’t make any sense whatsoever in the context of Catholic theology (as it runs contrary to Biblical teaching on this); (7) it therefore means this alleged quote from Pope John Paul II was almost certainly invented by Ariel Sharon himself or the jewish interview David Margolick.
Thus, we can state with near certainty that this quote is a fake.
References
(1) https://x.com/DineshDSouza/status/1975911607323771146
(2) https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/23/books/review/up-front.html
(3) https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2002/01/israel-ariel-sharon
(4) https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/2000/jan-mar/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_20000323_jerusalem-notre-dame.html
(5) Idem.
(6) https://catholiceducation.org/en/education/israel-whose-land-is-it.html
(7) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/do-the-jews-have-a-biblical-claim