(LifeSiteNews) — Benedictine College issued one-year suspensions to a number of students for widely disseminating a flyer on campus that accused one of the college’s theologians of spreading blasphemy, branded attendees of a campus event as “antichrists,” and suggested that Jewish people — including members of the local community — may be less than human.

As addressed in a public statement from the college, the anonymous flyers from a group calling itself “Coalition of Catholics Against Jewish Supremacy” targeted campus parking lots in late April that were subsequently removed from cars by other student groups “who were the first to respond to the attacks.”

The college highlighted a release from the student Latin Mass Society as well that expressed “its disgust and utter disappointment at the content” of the flyer.

The distributed document objected to a one-day conference held on the Benedictine campus titled “Shoulder to Shoulder: Strengthening Jewish-Catholic Friendship at a Moment of Crisis, Nostra Aetate Beyond 60.” The purpose of the event was framed as “a moment of formation, repair, and renewed commitment to the shared spiritual inheritance that binds Jews and Catholics together — shoulder to shoulder.”

The conference was also sponsored in partnership with the “Coalition of Catholics Against Antisemitism.” According to a bio of one conference speaker, the CCAA was launched by Philos Catholic (part of The Philos Project) in October 2023, the same month acute hostilities broke out between Hamas and Israel that quickly escalated to what Israeli human rights groups, holocaust experts, and many more have judged to be a genocide against the Palestinian people.

From early on, the Philos Project’s “core funder” was revealed to be Jewish Zionist billionaire Paul Singer, who has funded many organizations committed to an aggressive military posture in the Middle East on behalf of Israel. He has also served on the board of Commentary magazine, a publication known for advancing hard-line, neoconservative ideology for decades.

Philos Catholic came under fire last July when its director, Luke Moon, criticized Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa of Jerusalem for his condemnations of the Israeli army’s deadly strike against Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza that killed three Catholics and injured several more, including the parish priest. He also went on to criticize “Church leaders,” seemingly including Pope Leo, for strong remarks against the bombing.

One respondent noticed Moon “failed to express even a scintilla of sympathy and concern for the victims.” Instead, he “immediately jumped to attacking a beloved cardinal of the Holy Roman Church.”

Problematic Church citations from earlier centuries

The inflammatory “Coalition of Catholics Against Jewish Supremacy” flyer cited quotes from sacred scripture and saints who lived in eras quite different from the present utilizing language and concepts that modern ears would be expected to find abrasive and offensive.

For example, it cited a prediction by St. Hippolytus (d. 235 AD), an early Church father, who said the Antichrist would “spring from the Jews.” Student authors then went on to condemn “all those antichrists who have participated in this conference.”

It also charged a highly respected theologian at the college with “blasphemy” for proposing the Jews still have a covenantal relationship with God and went on to quote Blessed Peter the Venerable, a 12^th century Benedictine Abbot from France who in a broader context addressed Jews as “poor wretches” for continuing to “deny the Son of God,” adding, “Truly I doubt whether a Jew can be really human.”

Student’s ‘major violation’ due to discrimination and disrespect

According to an apparent letter to one of the suspended students as part of an appeal process, Benedictine Vice Provost for Student Affairs Sean Mulcahy said the student received his disciplinary outcome for “authoring and distributing a flyer that contained discriminatory language and disrespect against a Benedictine College faculty member” that violated the Benedictine College Community Code in the areas of “1) Discrimination; 2) Disrespect; 3) Improper Posting.”

“The Student Conduct Board suspended you from Benedictine College effective May 7, 2026, through May 31, 2027,” Mulcahy wrote to the student. “You were banned from campus and any Benedictine College event on or off campus, effective May 8, 2026. You were also interim restricted from participation in Senior Week activities, Baccalaureate Mass, and Commencement through the appeals process.”

The Vice Provost later reviewed the evidence as highlighted above and found it to qualify “as a major violation of the Benedictine College Community Code” and thus upheld the suspensions as “within the scope of appropriate outcomes.”

Benedictine celebrates Church teaching

In its statement on the matter, Benedictine College highlighted how this incident “has truly affirmed that our students, faculty, board of directors and staff are committed to the magisterial teaching of the Catholic Church in all matters, including the teaching expressed in Nostra Aetate about the Church’s relationship to Judaism and the Jewish people, who Pope St. John Paul II called our ‘elder brothers in the faith.’”

Proudly affirming being “honored to have hosted” the “Shoulder to Shoulder” conference, the statement described the event as presenting “not just Council-level teaching of the magisterium” but also examining “Jewish-Catholic relationships as expounded in the Catechism of the Catholic Church especially Catechism No. 121, which can be found here; Catechism No. 839-840, found here; and Catechism No. 674, which can be read here.”

Holy Land Christians warn religious Zionists seeking to drive them out

Highlighting the teaching of Nostra Aetate against antisemitism, which is based on the Church’s “rejection of every persecution against any man,” Holy Land Christians have condemned Christian Zionism and warned that radical Jewish influences are striving to drive them off their ancestral lands.

In the last several years, cascading reports have emerged of radical Zionist sects in the Holy Land terrorizing Christian towns in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including the destruction of Church-owned property.

In Jerusalem, physical assaults and harassment have surged. Earlier this month, video captured a “brutal assault on (a) Catholic nun” who was slammed to the ground and kicked by a Jewish settler named Yonah Schreiber near King David’s tomb.

Other reports document desecrations of Catholic symbols and the common occurrence of Christian clergy and religious being spat on and harassed by Jewish terrorists in Jerusalem.

Such incidents have highlighted the persistent and even deadly aggressions from radical Jewish sects over land and security in the West Bank and Jerusalem, where Church properties have faced repeated pressures with Christians consistently warning their western co-religionists that radical Zionist movements, most often with government sanction, are seeking to drive them out of the Holy Land.