Catholics and Jews after Carrie Prejean Boller, by Peter Wolfgang 

By Peter Wolfgang, Catholic Culture, Feb 20, 2026

 is president of Family Institute of Connecticut Action, a Hartford-based advocacy organization whose mission is to encourage and strengthen the family as the foundation of society. His work has appeared in The Hartford Courant, the Waterbury Republican-American, Crisis Magazine, Columbia Magazine, the National Catholic Register, CatholicVote, Catholic World Report, the Stream and Ethika Politika. He lives in Waterbury, Conn., with his wife and their seven children. The views expressed on Catholic Culture are solely his own. See full bio.

In the eighteen months I have been writing a near-weekly column for Catholic Culture, I have not been shy on the topic of Catholic-Jewish relations in the shadow of the Israel-Gaza War. You can read my previous work on the topic here, here, here, here, here, here and here. My emphasis has been that Catholics must firmly oppose antisemitism while carefully navigating the political and moral complexities of the conflict. While criticism of Israeli government policy is not inherently antisemitic, much contemporary discourse has crossed the line into outright hostility toward Jews—something Catholics have a particular duty to reject. I have tried to balance an acknowledgement of the suffering of the Palestinians, and the legitimacy of Catholic opposition to disproportionate Israeli military actions, with an affirmation of Israel’s right to exist and a recognition that we are where we are because of October 7th. Nostra Aetate is my lodestar in preserving and strengthening Catholic-Jewish friendship and in urging Catholics to reject hatred, pursue justice, and uphold the human dignity of all involved.

All of which brings us to Carrie Prejean Boller—the former beauty queen, hero in the fight against same-sex marriage, and recent Catholic convert—who blew up a White House Religious Liberty Commission hearing earlier this month. In about as neutral a description as I could find, Zeale reported it this way: