Priests Against Genocide Network Zoom with Cardinal A Ramazzini, Prof Omer Bartof and Fr David Neuhaus SJ
The “Priests Against Genocide” Network was born in August 2025 as an initiative of a group of Catholic priests who could not remain silent in the face of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, including within the life of the Church.
In a short time, the Network has grown to include over 2,200 priests and bishops from all five continents, united by the desire to bring together faith, justice, and commitment to a true and lasting peace.
If you share the spirit and the contents of the text below, we invite you to sign it by filling out this form.
Network “Priest against Genocide” – English version
Introduction
As Catholic priests – pastors and leaders of communities – we are outraged and cannot remain silent in the face of the humanitarian tragedy of the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip and other Occupied Palestinian Territories.
This network was not created to foment hatred or division, but to give a unified voice to the many personal initiatives that already express denunciation and calls for justice, in fidelity to the Gospel, to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church and to the sensitivity shared with many Christian denominations.
‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God’ (Mt 5:9).
‘War is always a defeat, always’ (Pope Francis, Angelus, 29 October 2023).
‘It is the peace of the risen Christ. An unarmed peace and a disarming peace, humble and persevering. It comes from God. God who loves us all unconditionally’ (Pope Leo XIV, First speech after his election, 8 May 2025).
Foundations
We are inspired by:
The Word of God: ‘Love and truth will meet, justice and peace will kiss. Truth will spring from the earth, and justice will look down from heaven’ (Psalm 85:11-12).
The Magisterium of the Church, which states: ‘Peace is not merely the absence of war, nor can it be reduced solely to the maintenance of a balance of power between adversaries, but is rightly defined as “the work of justice”’ (Gaudium et spes, 78).
To the social doctrine of the Church, which condemns the arms trade and the fuelling of conflicts: ‘The arms race is not a sure way to guarantee peace’ (Gaudium et spes, 81).
To international agreements prohibiting the sale of arms to those who commit crimes against civilians, in accordance with Common Position 2008/944/CFSP of the Council of the European Union.
‘Peace is not a spiritual utopia, it is a humble path, made up of daily gestures, which intertwines patience and courage, listening and action. And which requires today, more than ever, our vigilant and generative presence’ (Pope Leo XIV, Audience with the bishops of the Italian Episcopal Conference, 17 June 2025).
Vision
‘No more war! No more hatred! No more violence! And in the name of God, may every religion bring justice and peace, forgiveness and life, love to the earth!’ ( Pope Benedict XVI, “Pilgrims of Truth, Pilgrims of Peace” — Day of Reflection, Dialogue and Prayer for Peace and Justice in the World, Assisi, 27 October 2011) .
We are not ‘against’ anyone, but in favour of every human life.
Our stance against the genocide of the Palestinian people has no partisan aims, but stems from our awareness as ‘human beings’ and the need to live our faith consistently, even when it requires the courage to speak uncomfortable truths.
We want to be prophets for peace who, following the example of Jesus, denounce injustice, console victims, call for an end to hostilities and promote a just peace.
We have a deep appreciation for the Jewish tradition, from which we have received the teachings of Jesus and from which we still draw grace and wisdom. For this reason, we reject any possible accusation of anti-Semitism, both in definition and in substance:
- In definition, because anti-Semitism consists of hatred, discrimination and violence against Jews as Jews, while our criticism of the political choices of the State of Israel does not fall under this definition, as recognised by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance: ‘criticism of Israel, like criticism of any other country, cannot be considered anti-Semitic’.
- In substance, because we harbour no prejudice towards the Jewish people; on the contrary, we recognise our common roots in them. On the contrary, we denounce the distorted use of political and military power and the exploitation of God’s name, just as the prophets of the Jewish tradition did against the unjust kings of their time.
Aims
- To pray for “an unarmed and disarming peace” in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and in the more than fifty places where “we are experiencing a third world war in pieces” (Pope Francis, Address to the United Nations Security Council, 14 June 2023), raising awareness among priests and community leaders and promoting dialogue even with enemies.
- Denounce the genocide taking place in Gaza, the unjustified violence against the Palestinian civilian population and the state of apartheid that has been in force for over 70 years in all the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
- Call for respect for international law, United Nations resolutions and the rulings of the International Criminal Court, to which Italy is a signatory.
- Promote a culture of reconciliation, which passes through the recognition of personal, political and military responsibilities, through independent and fair investigations into 7 October 2023, and what happened before and after that date.
Commitment
- The dissemination of this public declaration signed by priests, distributed to the national and Catholic press.
- Raising awareness in parishes through catechesis and prayer vigils.
- A determined request for the suspension of arms sales to states or entities involved in crimes against the civilian population.
- A concrete and immediate commitment to true peace in the Holy Land, accompanied by the initiation of an authentic process of justice and reconciliation, in accordance with international law and the dignity of all peoples.
- The promotion of Peace Pilgrimages and Twinning with parishes and ecclesial realities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the Gaza Strip.
- Collaboration with other Christian and interreligious realities committed to peace and justice.
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I am a lay Catholic church atttender.
We have just this week set up the Muslim-Catholic Alliance in the UK, to work towards ending the Gaza Genocide
Stating that there has been, or is currently a genocide in Gaza is disingenuous and untrue. The International Court of Justice has yet to adjudicate on the allegation lodged by South Africa, the ICJ has not made a definitive finding to date. Hamas attacked Israel with genocidal intent on 7th October 2023, brutally killing 1200+ civilians, including women, children, and burning families in their homes, the worst single death toll of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust genocide during WWII.
Hamas also kidnapped 250 people, 85% Jewish, taking them into Gaza. Hamas (and Hezbollah) as well as their mentor, funder and arms supplier, Iran, have stated clearly that they want to destroy Israel, and Hamas/Hezbollah have consistently launched attacks on Israel for the past 25 years. Hamas knew full well when they launched their genocidal attack on Israel on 7th October that it would provoke an absolutely brutal response. After this, Israel would no longer tolerate attacks from Hamas, leading to the invasion of Gaza. If Israel wanted to genocide the people of Gaza, they could have done so in an instant, they didn’t, their aim was to eliminate Hamas, and find and free their hostages. The known prospect of a response leading to thousands of civilian deaths didn’t deter Hamas from their genocidal attack on 7th October, because their ultimate aim is the elimination of Israel. The primary responsibility for the deaths and destruction in Gaza lies with Hamas and their sponsor, Iran. If Hamas had not attacked Israel on October 7th the 55,000 civilians and 15,000 Hamas soldiers and operatives killed would all still be alive today and Gaza would still be intact. Instead Hamas misused billions in foreign aid they had received over the previous 15 years to build a huge network of tunnels, bigger than the London Underground, for arms storage, command centres and concealment under residential apartment blocks, schools and hospitals, deliberately using their own population as human shields, they trained and prepared for their 2023 genocidal attack on Israel years ahead. What we see in Gaza now is the direct result.
With regard to genocide, there have been ongoing genocidal attacks on Christians by terrorist groups in Nigeria for the last 15 years. It is estimated that 23,000 Christians have been murdered because of their faith since 2020, and 3,500 in the past year alone, with hundreds of churches and villages destroyed in the past decade. Just last year in Syria 3,000 people from minorities, Alawites and Druze, but also Christians, were murdered in targeted possibly genocidal attacks. Strangely, we never hear one word in the mainstream media about these genocidal atrocities, nothing. Why? Is it because no Jews are involved? One could speculate that if Israel/Jews were responsible for the atrocities in Nigeria and Syria that we would be hearing news headlines about it every day, but as they are not involved, we hear nothing. Does the genocide question only matter when Jews are accused of being perpetrators and not Muslims? If not, why the silence about the murders of thousands of Nigerian Christians, or atrocities against minorities in Syria?
Recently, Jewish people living in Ireland, the UK, Europe and North America have expressed dismay at the rise in anti-Jewish hatred they have experienced in the past few years, more than they’ve ever seen. This is frightening and seems to be directly related to the conflict since October 2023. So, when one accuses Israel of genocide and promotes a one-sided narrative without a determination by the ICJ, isn’t there surely a strong risk of feeding anti-Semitic hatred, even if unintentionally?