The Vatican's Relationship with the Palestinian Authority during (1994-2025)

Abstract

There has been a long-standing historical relationship between the Vatican and the Palestinian Authority, given the Catholic Church's significant international and spiritual influence and its religious connection to Palestine as the birthplace of Jesus Christ since the Middle Ages. This study aims to examine the Vatican's relationship with the Palestinian Authority during the period 1994-2025, by analyzing the political, media, and religious ties between the two institutions.
To achieve the study's objectives, the researcher employed both a historical approach, tracing the historical relationship between the two sides, and a descriptive-analytical approach, analyzing the details of the relationship—political, media, and religious—through official documents and statements from both Palestinian Authority officials and the Holy See, as well as speeches by the Pope, agreements between the two sides, and publications in official media outlets. Among the most prominent findings of the study are: the Vatican's gradual adoption of the term "State of Palestine" in official documents since 2013, culminating in the 2015 agreement; the strengthening of mutual diplomatic representation (the opening of the Palestinian Embassy to the Vatican in 2017), thus solidifying the principle of "state-to-state" relations; the Vatican's use of its media and religious tools to highlight the suffering of the Palestinians and the status of Jerusalem, while criticizing policies of collective punishment and displacement; and the Vatican's rejection and condemnation of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which has been ongoing since October 7, 2023, and the targeting of people, infrastructure, trees, and animals by the occupation.