In an interview with Dream 2 TV broadcast on April 8, Shenouda was asked if the Coptic Church would follow the lead of the Western Christian churches. Shenouda responded that the Christian Churches had “done nothing that warrants an apology,” adding he believed the apologies were being “done for appearance’s sake.”

Asked whether Jews were “Christ-killers”, responsible for the crucifixion, Shenouda stated, “The New Testament says that they are,” and asked rhetorically whether the Vatican was “against the teachings of the New Testament?”

Shenouda stated he had banned Copts from visiting Israel for fear they will “be influenced by the Israeli media, and we will not be able to prevent this. Who knows what ideas they will return with?”

The 1988 Lambeth Conference paper, “Jews, Christians and Muslims: The Way of Dialogue” acknowledged the Church’s historical complicity in anti-Semitism. The bishops at Lambeth stated “Anti-Jewish prejudice promulgated by leaders of both Church and State has led to persecution, pogrom and finally, provided the soil in which the evil weed of Nazism was able to take rood and spread its poison.”

Under the pontificate of John Paul II, the Roman Catholic Church acknowledged its role in Jewish persecution. On his March 2000 visit to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, the Pope stated: “We hope that the Jewish people will acknowledge that the Church utterly condemns anti-Semitism and every form of racism as being altogether opposed to the principles of Christianity.”