Israel and its conflicts with its neighbours have proven divisive issues for Christians across the world; the leadership of the mainstream Protestant denominations have frequently tended to take a hostile stance, while Evangelicals have historically been inclined towards support.

The Catholic Church is in a unique position, given that its leading figure, the Pope, is both the head of a global faith, and the head of a recognised state (Vatican City). Arguably more than any other Christian denomination, the Catholic Church encompasses extreme diversities of opinion among both its clergy and its laity. Catholicism and Judaism have had a difficult relationship for centuries, while the Vatican has had full diplomatic relations with Israel since 1993. The Vatican endorses a two-state solution to end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Both Pope Leo, the current pope, and Pope Francis, Leo’s predecessor, condemned the current war between Israel and Iran (and the latter’s proxies) giving the impression that they held Israel to be the primary aggressor. South Africa’s Chief Rabbi, Warren Goldstein, issued robust criticisms of these positions.

Nevertheless, influential Catholics have taken a different view, recognising the vulnerability of Israel and also discerning a cosmological message in its existence as a modern state.

Catholic Voices for Israel (CVFI) is an initiative of Catholics – both clergy and laypeople – to present this perspective to the Church and to wider society. Its Charter reads: “CVFI seeks to counter distorted portrayals of Israel by promoting a more accurate, charitable, and theologically grounded understanding of Israel's place in Catholic thought and public life. It also seeks to explore an authentic Catholic approach to the question of Zionism. Such an approach does not assert that the modern State of Israel constitutes a theocracy or a "faith‑state". Nor does it imply support for rebuilding the Jerusalem Temple or for any eschatological programme. It does not justify injustice, violence, or the dispossession of any people. Nor is it rooted in Protestant dispensationalism or dual‑covenant theology.”

The organisation would not seek to justify each action by Israel, but would advocate for its legitimacy as a state, and seek to counter the antisemitism that sometimes attends hostility to Israel. While rejecting the extreme interpretations of Israel’s existence that exist in some Christian traditions (linking it to the so-called End Times), it does identify a Catholic understanding of the spiritual significance of the state’s existence: “That the re‑establishment of a Jewish homeland in the modern State of Israel bears significance in light of God's enduring fidelity to His people, a point expressed by Pope Benedict XVI when he noted that ‘in the creation of the State of Israel the fidelity of God to Israel is revealed in a mysterious way’.”

The organisation would pursue its mandate by challenging anti-Israel agitation in the media and in public discourse, setting out an understanding of the theological basis of the relationship between Catholicism and Judaism and Catholicism and Israel.

The group has made an appeal to the Holy See (the governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City) calling for a conciliatory approach to Israel, and to recognise anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism, which is incompatible with contemporary Catholic thinking: “We express hope that the Holy See will build upon its historic diplomatic recognition of the State of Israel by articulating more fully the theological foundations for that recognition – and in particular that it acknowledge that divine providence is at work in the Jewish people’s return to their land and in the existence of the modern State of Israel. We further express the hope that Church authorities will acknowledge, building on the trajectory of the Church's post-conciliar teaching, that systematic anti-Zionism — the denial of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state — represents a contemporary form of antisemitism, incompatible with the spirit of Nostra Aetate and with the Church’s stated commitment to the Jewish people.”

The initiative is headed by Antoine Lévy, a Dominican friar and theologian, and Dr André Villeneuve, professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit in the United States. It encourages interested Catholics to sign up. Thus far, signatories appear mostly to be lay people, along with a fair number of academics and a number of clerics. No senior member of the Church hierarchy has at this point committed to the initiative.