A Catholic priest is under fire for his Christmas Day declaration that Jesus was “a Palestinian Jew born into an occupied country,” as critics maintained the name “Palestine” was not applied to the territory until nearly a century after Christ’s crucifixion.

Speaking Monday on “CNN This Morning,” the Rev. Edward L. Beck, a priest of the Passionist order, told co-host Poppy Harlow that Jesus’s life has “parallels to our current world situation right now” that “you can’t make up.”

He said, “The story of Christmas is about a Palestinian Jew. How often do you find those words put together? A Palestinian Jew born into a time when his country was occupied, right? They can’t find a place for her to even give birth, his mother. They’re homeless. They eventually have to flee as refugees into Egypt, no less.”

Radio talk show host Erick-Woods Erickson blasted Father Beck for those assertions.

“The priest who the network had on for Christmas does not seem to realize that Jesus Christ was born in Judea more than one hundred years before the Romans created Syria Palaestina, “ Mr. Erickson wrote in an email to his online followers.

Mr. Erickson, himself a former CNN commentator, quoted Scripture to note that Christ “was born ‘Bethlehem, in the land of Judah’ (Micah 5:2) and would come as ‘a ruler who [would] shepherd my people Israel’ (Micah 5:4).”

The radio personality said Jesus “was, after all, executed in Jerusalem with a sign over his cross that read, ‘The King of the Jews,’ not the Palestinians.”

The Washington Times has reached out to Father Beck via social media and his order’s New York City office for comment.

• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.