'Scandalous': Carrie Prejean Boller to receive 'Catholic Champion' award at gala with Candace Owens

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, February 18, 2026

A Catholic leader directing a movement against antisemitism called it “scandalous” for Carrie Prejean Boller to receive a “Catholic Champion” award following her removal from President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, which Boller claimed was due to her faith and rejection of Zionism. 

Simone Rizkallah, the director of the Coalition of Catholics Against Antisemitism, urged fellow believers not to attend a prayer gala on March 19 organized by the advocacy group Catholics for Catholics. 

Boller, former Miss California and a Catholic convert, is scheduled to receive an award for her “courageous defense” of the Catholic faith during a commission hearing, according to an announcement last week by Catholics for Catholics President John Yep. The event will be held in Washington, D.C., and feature several speakers, including Candace Owens and Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh. 

In a statement to The Christian Post, Rizkallah said Boller’s behavior during a commission hearing on combating antisemitism was “not an act of Catholic courage,” and disputed the claim that Boller’s faith had anything to do with her removal. 

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who chairs the Religious Liberty Commission, announced Boller’s removal last week, stating that "no member of the Commission has the right to hijack a hearing for their own personal and political agenda on any issue." 

During the hearing, the former Miss California defended media personality Candace Owens, who has garnered attention in recent years for her controversial comments about Israel and the Jewish people. Boller asserted that Owens “just doesn’t support Zionism,” denying that the media personality had ever said anything antisemitic.

Critics of Owens have expressed concerns that the influencer is encouraging Jew hatred by urging her listeners to read Der Talmudjude by the German-Catholic theologian August Rohling. The work, which misrepresented Talmudic texts, acted as a foundational text for later antisemitic propaganda.

Other remarks by Owens that have sparked concern from critics include her amplifying the claim that Jews ran the transatlantic slave trade, which historians have noted is false. The influencer has also attracted controversy for questioning established facts about the Holocaust, accusing Israel of being involved in President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, and suggesting that people who criticize Israel are in danger of being killed.

Boller also claimed during the hearing that Catholics don’t support Zionism, and she also pushed back against the idea that anti-Zionism — the denial of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland — is a form of antisemitism. 

“This was inappropriate behavior that warranted her removal, as Lt. Gov. Patrick rightly determined,” Rizkallah told CP. “She should not be rewarded for such conduct, nor should it be held up as a model of Catholic witness.” 

“The uptick in Catholic antisemitism — call it what you want, 'anti-Jewish sentiment’ — was present before the war in Israel/Gaza. The violence against our Jewish friends that American Catholics have witnessed on American soil in the last few years should be enough to disturb us,” she added. “At the very least, it should alert us to the tone-deafness — if not outright malice — of Miss Prejean's behavior and the scandal of celebrating it.”

The CCAA director also called it “scandalous” that Catholics for Catholics has included Owens in its speaker lineup for the prayer gala. 

According to Rizkallah, “Catholic events should feature speakers who exemplify Catholic teaching and virtue, not those who promote division, conspiracy theories, or use inflammatory rhetoric that contradicts the [Catholic] Church's call to charity and truth.” 

In response to an inquiry from CP, a Catholics for Catholics spokesperson explained that the organization customarily awards individuals “who have stood out for their patriotism and defense of the Catholic faith.” The spokesperson also cited the group’s breakdown of the Catholic view of Zionism, which it included in its announcement that Boller is to receive one of its ‘Catholic Champion” awards.

“In summary, the statement explains that the Catholic Church acknowledges Israel’s right to exist under NATURAL LAW but rejects the theological claims that tie modern political sovereignty directly to divine covenant promises,” the spokesperson told CP. “Therefore, to be a Catholic Christian … does not in any way cause Catholics to embrace Zionism (biblically loaded) as the fulfillment of a prophecy.” 

The Catholics for Catholics representative added that the organization rejects “all antisemitism, which is simply hatred of Jews. We desire no harm to come to our Jewish friends but only their true and highest good, which is found in their Christ and ours.” 

Regarding Boller’s defense of Owens, the spokesperson said the organization doesn't know whether the convert’s support for the media personality is related to her political views or to another reason. 

“However, we assume the controversy with Owens is because she is constantly labeled as [antisemitic] for the same reason of not supporting the modern state of Israel and its government — which again, it’s confusing because the term anti-Zionism is not [antisemitism],” the spokesperson insisted, directing CP to a Catholics for Catholics blog on the subject. 

In a Saturday X post, the former Miss California expressed gratitude toward the Catholic advocacy group for choosing to recognize her with an award, which she said filled her with “a renewed commitment to defend religious liberty for all Americans, so that no one is ever compelled to compromise their faith or conscience.”

“I humbly accept this Catholic Champion Award on behalf of all Americans who will not be forced to forsake their religious beliefs or theological convictions to conform to any political ideology,” Boller stated. 

“As Catholics, we believe that the promises made to Israel find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ and are extended to all through His Church,” she continued. “The People of God are not defined by modern political borders, but by belonging to Christ.” 

The Catholic convert added: ”Our faith does not bind us to treat any contemporary nation-state as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Salvation history is fulfilled in Christ, and the Church is the People of God drawn from every tribe and nation.” 

On the topic of Zionism, Rizkallah noted that Catholic theology doesn't teach that the modern State of Israel represents the direct fulfillment of biblical prophecy or a predetermined eschatological event, a theological framework found in some strands of Protestant Christian denominations.

The CCAA director contended, however, that the Catholic Church’s “position is both clear and nuanced: politically, she recognizes Israel's legitimacy; theologically, she does not ground that recognition in prophetic claims about the modern state.”

“Yet the conversation should not stop there — another point often ignored in simplistic commentary. While the Catholic Church does not embrace prophetic or eschatological forms of Christian Zionism, Catholic theology does leave room for distinctly Catholic theological reflection that affirms the enduring covenantal significance of the Jewish people and the moral legitimacy of Jewish self-determination in their historic homeland,” Rizkallah continued.

“This allows Catholics to recognize the profound historical and theological meaning of the Jewish return to their ancestral land without collapsing that reflection into prophetic literalism or partisan politics.” 

Rizkallah encouraged people to listen to a bonus episode of the "Beyond Rome" podcast to better understand Minimalist Catholic Zionism. She also urged Catholics not to receive their catechesis from events like the Catholics for Catholics gala or from “figures who exploit Catholic identity for political purposes.”

“Instead, turn to actual theologians — Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, Gavin D'Costa, Father Thomas Joseph White, and others who have devoted themselves to rigorous theological reflection on these complex questions,” the CCAA leader stated. 

“Precision matters. When public figures speak carelessly about the [Catholic] Church's teaching, they do not merely express a personal opinion — they create confusion, distort Catholic doctrine, and undermine serious efforts at Catholic–Jewish understanding,” she added. “Catholics deserve better than slogans masquerading as theology.”