Vatican hardens tone on Israel after Gaza parish strike

Pope Leo XIV blesses the faithful gathered in the square in front of the Apostolic Palace for the noon Angelus prayer in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Sunday, July 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

An Israeli army strike on the only Catholic church in Gaza last week has pushed the Vatican to change its tone on Israel and blame it more directly in the dragging war -- a break from its traditional diplomacy strategy.

The strike killed three people in the Holy Family Church in the centre of Gaza City -- prompting condemnation by politicians and by religious leaders of various denominations.

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday slammed the “barbarity” of the war and the blind “use of force,” denouncing “the attack by the Israeli army.”

It was a change of language after two years of tireless, repetitive calls for peace by the Vatican under former Pope Francis, who died in April.

Francois Mabille, an analyst at France’s Geopolitical Observatory of Religion, said the statements represent an increasingly critical view of Israel in the Catholic world.

Beyond growing anger worldwide at the human cost of the Gaza war, he cited “the fact that it’s happening on holy ground.”

It is leading to “at least a temporary shift in Catholic opinion in general,” he told AFP.

On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Pope Leo -- who became pontiff in May -- and said his country “deeply regrets” the strike, blaming a “stray missile” and vowing an investigation.

Netanyahu’s spokesman said the conversation was “friendly” and that the two men agreed to meet soon.

But on the same day, in an interview with Italian broadcaster Rai 2, the Vatican’s second-in-command -- Cardinal Pietro Parolin -- implied the strike may have been intentional.

He called on Israel to publicise the findings of its investigation to find out “if it really was an error, which we can legitimately doubt, or if there was a will to directly attack a Christian church.”

The Vatican also sent the cardinal of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, on a rare visit to Gaza Friday, where he visited the wounded and conducted a mass at the Holy Family Church.

The visit was meant to show that Catholic authorities were determined to stay in Gaza.

“We are not a target. They say it was a mistake, even if everyone here does not believe that is the case,” the cardinal told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

‘Tyrant’

Mabille, the analyst, said the Holy See is now also using “more precise vocabulary based on legal categories.”

On Sunday, the American-born pope called for the international community to “observe humanitarian law and respect the obligation to protect civilians, as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, the indiscriminate use of force, and the forced displacement of populations.”

Mabille said that constituted four fundamental rights under humanitarian law that are being violated by Netanyahu’s government.

Some Catholic officials are going much further.

In an interview to Italy’s La Stampa newspaper, Cardinal Augusto Paolo Lojudice -- who also serves as a judge at a Vatican tribunal -- said Netanyahu is “not stopping because he is a tyrant pursuing a dark and bloodthirsty plan for power”.

Lojudice -- who worked with Leo for several years before was made pope -- accused Israel of “evil without logic” in Gaza.

The Vatican, which since 2015 has recognised the state of Palestine, supports a two-state solution in Israel.

It has also called for a special international status for Jerusalem, with free and safe access to religious sites there.

Already strained ties with Israel degraded further after Israel launched its assault following Hamas’s deadly October 7, 2023 attack.

Diverging from the Vatican’s official line, Pope Francis questioned whether Israel’s heavy handed military response amounted to “genocide” in Gaza.

The current tense diplomatic exchanges also come after a small Christian village in the central occupied West Bank was burnt down in early July and during heightened criticism of Israeli settler attacks.