Pleas for peace as hostilities intensify

DURING?HIS weekly Vatican address last Sunday, Pope Francis ?made an unscripted and urgent plea for peace, referring particularly to the conflicts in Gaza, Iraq and Ukraine.

With his voice appearing to crack with emotion, the Pope broke off from his scripted remarks to make a direct appeal to leaders to halt the violence and work for peace. “Please stop! I ask you with all my heart, it’s time to stop!” he pleaded. The comments came after a humanitarian truce in Gaza broke down, with Israeli bombardments of Gaza and Hamas rocket fire resuming. “I am thinking above all of children, who are deprived of the hope of a worthwhile life, of a future,” said Pope Francis.

On Monday, Caritas Internationalis, the Catholic Church’s international aid organisation, launched an emergency Gaza appeal, providing medical supplies to four hospitals, fuel for generators and food parcels. Caritas Jerusalem has provided shelter and aid for more than 1,200 civilians in Gaza, many of them Muslims, who have found temporary refuge in the Greek Orthodox Church of St Porphyrius and the Holy Family Catholic Church.

Earlier this week, people living in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Old Gaza City, where the Holy Family Church is situated, received a warning from Israel that their densely populated neighbourhood would be bombed. Many fled, but the parish priest, Fr Jorge Hernandez, and three Missionaries of Charity nuns stayed to care for 29 disabled children and nine elderly women who could not be moved.

The raid targeted a home a few yards away from the church complex, destroying the home but damaging the school and parish priest’s office. “We spent a difficult night but we are here. This absurd war continues,” said Fr Hernandez. The Palestinian director of Caritas Jerusalem, Fr Raed Abusahliah, reported that “our 18 operators are working tirelessly in a terrible situation”.