This article intends to examine the reception of the first Zionism by the Italian Catholic press close to the Holy See: "Osservatore Romano" and "Civiltà Cattolica". Three years are analysed in this study: 1897, birth of Zionism; 1904 visit of the Zionist leader Theodor Herzl to the Pope in Rome; 1917, Balfour Declaration. Particular attention has been paid to the 1897, crucial moment for the political European Anti-semitism. For this year have been examined also some local intransigent Catholic newspapers. Principal aim of this research is highlighting how the Holy See reacted to the Zionist project of settling a Jewish State in Palestine.