Former diplomat’s claim about papal bias against Middle-Eastern Christians corrected with X community note

A former US diplomat ignited a firestorm of criticism and correction — including a community note on X — after claiming on X this week that recent popes have a pattern of “slandering” Israel and ignoring the genocide of Christians in the Middle East.

In a July 21 post, Ellie Cohanim, who was the deputy special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism under President Donald Trump during his first term, replied to a July 20 post from Pope Leo XIV’s official X account about the tragic strike of the only Catholic Church in Gaza, which CatholicVote previously reported.

Cohanim wrote, “Have you noticed the pattern in which one Pope after the next will focus on the Jewish state & slandering it, while completely ignoring the actual genocide of Christians in the Middle East including right this minute in Syria?” 

Many X users quickly chastised her post. They submitted suggested community notes, which provide important context for controversial posts and often serve as de facto fact checks. At any given time, the community note with the most positive feedback from X users is displayed beneath controversial posts. 

The current default community note states: “Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV have consistently talked about Middle Eastern Christians and their challenges, including attacks.” The note also lists several links to instances of these two popes speaking out on the issue, as well as a report from when Pope Francis visited a region in Iraq where Christian communities had suffered deeply from ISIS attacks. 

The note also referenced when Pope Leo denounced the bombing of a church in Damascus, Syria, June 22 as a “vile terrorist attack.”

>> Pope Leo responds to deadly church bombing in Damascus <<

However, the argument against the popes may also have traction beyond just Cohanim, according to Tim Carney, a Catholic author and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Responding to Cohanim in an X post, Carney wrote, “This BS talking point against the Pope is gaining momentum.”

Several other Catholics also criticized the former diplomat. Sohrab Ahmari, an author and US editor of UnHerd, called Cohanim’s post “utter and shameless slander” and pointed out ways that Pope Francis drew attention to the plight of Middle Eastern Christians, including visiting Iraq “in solidarity with ISIS’s Christian victims.”

The popular X account Catholic Arena posted an image of Pope Francis on his trip to Iraq with the caption, “This is Pope Francis literally sitting in Church Square in Mosul, the heart of the ISIS persecution of Christians, in 2021,” continuing that “A female suicide bomber and a van travelling at high speed with explosives both attempted to kill him during this visit.”

At time of publication, Cohanim has not provided any apology for her comments, and the post is still up on X.

>> Pastor of Gaza Catholic church tells of attack, aftermath of Israeli tank strike <<

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