The Executive Director of Pax Christi USA, Johnny Zokovitch, found President Biden’s claim that the “Pope and I are on the same page,” that “the Pope was across-the-board supportive of what we’re doing” on the Israel-Gaza crisis, to be more than unlikely:
“I was incredulous. Gob-smacked. As the executive director of Pax Christi USA, the national CATHOLIC peace movement, I’ve been paying attention to what Pope Francis has said about war and war-making these past 10 years: his ceaseless calls for an end to the weapons industry and arms dealing; his assertion that there is no such thing as a just war; his pleading for an economy directed to the care of our common home and each other instead of an economy that fuels environmental destruction, oppression and poverty, and foments war; his insistence that ‘charity and nonviolence govern how we treat each other as individuals, within society and in international life.'
“So NO President Biden. Your administration and Pope Francis are not on the same page in providing military aid to the Israeli government as it bombs children in Gaza. Not on the same page when you position a U.S. aircraft carrier and extend military support to the Israeli army as they prepare for a ground war that has displaced over a million people. Not on the same page when you obstruct the application of international law to the oppression of Palestinians under the Israeli government’s occupation while championing it in reference to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“What the Pope supports is what we asked President Biden in this letter we co-signed with other national Catholic organizations a few days ago. If President Biden wants to be on the same page with Pope Francis, he can start by:
“Publicly calling for de-escalation, humanitarian ceasefire, and restraint by all sides.
