(LifeSiteNews) — A Catholic priest is being criticized for claiming the Church teaches that the covenant God made with the Jewish people was not superseded by the Catholic religion.
Fr. Robert Sirico appeared on a podcast for Zionist media outlet PragerU recently. The title of the program was “Why Catholic Teaching Rejects Socialism, Marxism and Antisemitism.”
During the podcast, Sirico — who helps run the Acton Institute, a Michigan-based libertarian think tank — referred to a document produced by the Second Vatican Council to substantiate his claim.
“From the Catholic traditional view,” he began, Nostra Aetate declares that “replacement theology is unacceptable.” Nostra Aetate teaches that Jews and Christian “are siblings to one another.”
Nostra Aetate was one of the 16 documents approved at the Second Vatican Council. Its focus is primarily on the Church’s relationship with those who do not acknowledge Christ as the Messiah, including Jews but also Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, and others.
While it is unclear what exactly Sirico meant by the phrase “replacement theology,” it appears he was intending to say that the covenant God made with the Israelites in the Old Testament has not been broken by the coming of Christ.
While post-Vatican II popes have often spoken about this so-called “dual covenant” theory, it is somewhat difficult to see where in Vatican II’s documents Sirico’s arguments can be substantiated.
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Traditional Catholic influencer Matt Gaspers noted the apparent contradiction. In a social media post published on X Thursday, Gaspers recalled that the fourth paragraph of Nostra Aetate says “the Church is the new people of God.” He also pointed to how Lumen Gentium — another document approved at Vatican II — refers to the Church as “the new Israel.”
“Where does Nostra Aetate (NA) state that ‘replacement theology is unacceptable,’” he asked Sirico directly in an X post.
Gaspers encouraged Sirico, who did not respond to his question, to read an article on Crisis Magazine’s website that explains how the Council upholds the view that the Church is the “new Israel.”
With all due respect, Fr. @robertsirico, where does Nostra Aetate (NA) state that “replacement theology is unacceptable” (your words)?
Source: @prageru https://t.co/0tnGNJl5Ov
On the contrary, NA says that “the Church is the new people of God” (n. 4). Moreover, Vatican II… pic.twitter.com/vJUTQqkWTe
— Matt Gaspers (@MattGaspers) March 12, 2026
While Gaspers is correct to share quotes from Vatican II that affirm the Church as the new Israel, Nostra Aetate does say that God “does not repent of the gifts He makes or of the calls He issues.” It also says that “the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures.”
These citations — presumably the ones Sirico is relying on to make his claim — have caused many traditionalists to question Nostra Aetate’s faithfulness to the Church’s long-standing teaching on the Jews, especially in light of what Scripture says on the matter. “Some of the branches were broken off, and you were grafted in among them, and became a partaker, because of unbelief they were broken off,” Romans 11:17-20 states. “Your house is forsaken,” Our Lord declares directly to the Jews in Luke 13:35.
If these verses are what Nostra Aetate is attempting to reverse when it says “the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God,” then it indeed is problematic for faithful Catholics and it does lend itself to Sirico’s argument.
During the middle part of the 20th century Fr. Leslie Rumble and Fr. Charles Carty published several books titled Radio Replies. The books contain brief answers to a variety of questions asked by callers to their radio program.
In Radio Replies: Volume I — published in 1939 — Frs. Rumble and Carty explain that “the religion known by the Jews before Christ was therefore but imperfect and preparatory. The religion of Christ was its perfect fulfillment, and the Jews should have recognized and accepted it. They did not.”
In a follow-up book published in 1942, the pair explain that “Judaism as a religion is no longer acceptable to God. The one true religion in this world is the Christian religion.”
Sirico as well as others who want to comment on the Church’s teachings on the Jewish covenant should keep these words in mind. If they do, will realize that both Scripture and the perennial magisterium of the Catholic faith do not permit one to say that “replacement theology is unacceptable.” Instead they will see that Catholics must be of the belief that replacement theology is and can only be the sole acceptable position a follower of Christ can have.
