Loving Israel, Loving Messiah, Loving the Church

To reunite all his children, scattered and led astray by sin, the Father willed to call the whole of humanity together into his Son's Church. The Church is the place where humanity must rediscover its unity and salvation. The Church is "the world reconciled." She is that bark which "in the full sail of the Lord's cross, by the breath of the Holy Spirit, navigates safely in this world." According to another image dear to the Church Fathers, she is prefigured by Noah's ark, which alone saves from the flood. (CCC 845)

Catholics for Israel is a Catholic apostolate, faithful to the Magisterium of the Church, of Jewish and Gentile Catholics from Israel and from the nations.

Our mission includes the following points:

Loving Israel

• Building bridges between Israel and the Church,
• Fostering friendship between Jews and Christians;
• Studying and teaching the Jewish roots of the Catholic faith;
• Reflecting on the “mystery of Israel” and on the prophetic role of Israel today;
• Encouraging humble repentance for past sins of Christians against the Jewish people;
• Promoting justice, peace and reconciliation between Jews and Arabs in the Holy Land, rooted in Jesus Christ;
• Informing Christians about the situation of the Church in the Middle East;
• Providing a balance to the anti-Israel bias that is prevalent in much of the secular media.

Loving Messiah

• Proclaiming the Messiah’s Gospel of peace to all people, in obedience to Jesus' Great Commission to “make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19);
• Humbly and sensitively witnessing the message of the Gospel to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” while upholding a great respect for Jewish faith and traditions;
• Providing resources introducing the person of Jesus of Nazareth with particular emphasis on his Jewishness (e.g. The Messiah in the Old Testament in the Light of Rabbinical Writings ).

Loving the Church

• Teaching the biblical and theological connections between the divine promises made to Israel and the Catholic faith;
• Fostering Christian unity and love for the Church by clarifying and highlighting the biblical and Jewish foundations of Catholic beliefs that are often disputed or rejected by other Christians;
• Supplying multi-media teaching resources for evangelization and catechesis, including a complete online course with 57 multi-media lessons covering the entire biblical story of salvation and all of the Catechism of the Catholic Church;
• Creating a “space” within the Church where Jews who find Christ and enter the Church can preserve the Jewish expression of their faith while living out a genuinely Catholic life.

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Our Mission to Catholics:

Our mission to Catholics is to encourage a deeper conversion to and communion with Jesus the Messiah and a greater faithfulness to His Body, the Catholic Church, while pondering on the “mystery of Israel” and God’s continued presence and action among the Jewish people and throughout their history; to foster a greater understanding of the Jewish roots and heritage of the Catholic faith, encourage repentance from all forms of anti-Semitism and foster a love for the Jewish people and for Israel; and to counter the errors of “replacement theology” and “dual-covenant theology.” We also wish to contribute in creating a "space" within the Church where Catholic Jews may live a genuinely Catholic faith while remaining entirely faithful to their Jewishness.

Our Mission to Other Christians:

Our mission to non-Catholic Christians is to provide resources that explain and clarify the biblical roots of the Catholic faith so that our brothers and sisters in Messiah may discover and receive as their own the fullness of Jesus' gifts to them, particularly His own self-gift in the Eucharist and the other sacraments, and so that they may have the opportunity to come to full unity and communion with His Body, the Catholic Church, and with all the saints in heaven and on earth (CCC 816).

Our Mission to Messianic Jews:

Messianic Jews are Jews who believe that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah of Israel and Son of God. Catholics for Israel wishes to promote understanding, dialogue and friendship between Catholics and Messianic Jews who, as baptized believers in Yeshua, are brothers and sisters in Messiah, although in imperfect unity because of issues that still divide the two communities. We wish to provide resources that explain and clarify the biblical and Jewish roots of the Catholic faith so that our Messianic friends may receive as their own the fullness of Yeshua's gifts to them, discover the fullest expression of their Jewish faith in Him, and have the opportunity to come into full unity and communion with His body, the Catholic Church, while remaining entirely faithful to their Jewish (and Messianic) roots.

Our Mission to Jews:

Our mission to the Jewish people is to provide resources to our Jewish friends who are interested or curious in knowing more about the person of Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth and about the Catholic faith. This includes the reasons why we believe Jesus is the Messiah of Israel who was foretold by the prophets; how the one God of Israel has revealed himself as a communion of three persons; how his Body, the Catholic Church, is the fulfillment of all that was promised to Israel; how Jews who find the Messiah and enter the Church do not cease to be Jews or forsake the traditions of their forefathers, but rather become “fulfilled Jews” who receive forgiveness, eternal life, and are able to partake in God’s own nature (2 Pet 1:4).

Our Mission to Muslims:

God also lovingly calls Muslims to forgiveness, blessing, salvation and eternal beatitude through the Messiah and his Church. An integral part of this salvation is reconciliation with Israel, for “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22).

Our Mission to All:

God calls all people to repentance, forgiveness, salvation, and to God’s gift of eternal life through Jesus the Messiah, a salvation that has sprouted from the olive tree of Israel and has become universalized in the Catholic Church; in addition, our mission also aims to provide a balance to the widespread anti-Israel bias found in much of the media and on the world scene today.