Pope Leo Reaffirms Fight Against Antisemitism in AJC Meeting
Pope Leo XIV reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s opposition to antisemitism during an October 22 meeting with American Jewish Committee leaders at the Vatican, warning that profound differences of opinion must never become prejudice or hostility. His address placed the protection of human dignity and religious freedom at the center of relations between Jews and Catholics.
The meeting took place in the Consistory Hall. The Vatican published the address, and both OSV News and Jewish Insider reported on the encounter. For the Jewish delegation, the importance lay in a continuing relationship as well as the public statement against hatred.
A commitment rooted in Church teaching
Leo recalled the Church’s declaration Nostra Aetate and its sixtieth anniversary in 2025. He reiterated the position he had expressed on that occasion: opposition to antisemitism is grounded in the Gospel itself. He presented that commitment as part of the Church’s religious responsibility, rather than simply a diplomatic courtesy to visiting guests.
The pope also linked friendship between the communities to service, justice and the protection of religious freedom. In that framing, rejecting religious and ethnic discrimination belongs to the daily work of the relationship. It is not a separate subject to be raised only after an attack or public controversy.
Why the date mattered
The audience coincided with the Catholic feast of Saint John Paul II. Leo recalled his predecessor’s work to deepen Jewish Catholic friendship and referred to a 1995 address to the AJC. The reference connected Thursday’s gathering to a relationship that has developed across different papacies and generations of Jewish leadership.
His central warning concerned the boundary between disagreement and hostility. The published speech did not require the two communities to agree on every issue. Instead, it said differences, however serious, cannot justify prejudice. That distinction gives dialogue a purpose precisely when conversations are difficult, rather than only when participants already share the same view.
Jewish leaders see an opening
AJC chief executive Ted Deutch told Jewish Insider that the meeting reinforced the Church’s commitment to confronting antisemitism and to continuing dialogue. Rabbi Noam Marans, the organization’s director of interreligious affairs, emphasized the reach of the Catholic Church and the significance of its voice for audiences far beyond the room.
OSV News reported that Marans attached particular importance to the timing of the audience, shortly after the pope resumed public meetings following surgery. He interpreted the welcome as evidence of the value Leo places on relations with the Jewish people. That was the delegation’s assessment of the gesture, alongside the words of the published address.
A relationship with work ahead
The Vatican speech described fraternity as especially urgent in a world marked by violence and mistrust. Leo called for the relationship to be expressed through practical gestures. His remarks offered a religious and moral direction; the address did not announce a new security program or a timetable for institutional reforms.
For Jewish communities, the value of that direction will also depend on how it is carried into teaching, local relationships and public responses to hatred. The meeting established a clear public commitment from the pope, while leaving the continuing work of dialogue with the people and institutions responsible for sustaining it.
Leo closed with thanks, an assurance of prayer and the Hebrew greeting shalom. After an address recalling decades of engagement, that ending returned attention to the visitors themselves. The immediate outcome was a renewed affirmation that friendship with Jews and resistance to antisemitism are enduring responsibilities of the Church.
