Churches urge combatants to ‘turn away from war’ in Middle East

The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem issued a statement on Monday “on the urgent need to conclude the present war and turn from the pursuit of death and destruction towards the promotion of life and peace.”

They warned that “the situation in our beloved Holy Land has continued to deteriorate”, with millions of civilian displaced and subject to indiscriminate attacks, people “languishing in captivity on all sides” and others suffering “unchecked attacks against their villages, pastures and farmlands”. They warned that “we stand at the precipice of a full-blown regional war”.

Remembering Gaza’s Christian communities at St Porphyrios Orthodox Church, the Holy Family Catholic Church and the staff of the Al-Ahli Anglican Hospital, the leaders pledged to work “to rebuild and strengthen the Christian presence in Gaza, as well as throughout the Holy Land”.

They urged political leaders in the region to engage in diplomatic discussion “leading to concrete steps that promote a just and lasting peace in our region through the adoption of an internationally legitimate two-state solution”.

Last week aid agencies renewed their appeals for a halt to the fighting after Hamas reported that war’s death toll had exceeded 40,000.

“As hopes for an imminent ceasefire fade, this tragic toll underscores the urgent need for peace,” said Cafod in a statement on 22 August. “We demand an immediate, permanent ceasefire to halt further loss of life, allow critical aid to reach those in desperate need, and secure the safe return of hostages.”

Elizabeth Funnell, Cafod’s Country Programme Representative for the Middle East, said Gaza was “the most dangerous place in the world to be an aid worker”. 

She told The Tablet that repeated evacuation orders from the Israel Defence Forces upset the provision of aid, with civilians sometimes evacuated to designated “safe” areas that then came under bombardment.

“People just want to get on with their everyday lives,” she said, insisting that “there is that optimism, there is that sense of hope” for an end to the fighting.

However, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa said earlier in the week that “the prospects are not good in the short term”. Speaking at the start of a conference in Italy, the patriarch said: “We cannot talk about peace at the moment.” 

He said peace needed “political and religious leadership which is in crisis” and instead focused on the need for societal participation. “Peace is a culture, it is not something that one has to do, it is politics, it is education, it is the commitment of the media, it is working in all aspects of life, in a globalised world where no one is an island,” he said.

Speaking to Vatican News on 17 August, Cardinal Pizzaballa described support for Christians in Gaza, noting of an aid delivery from the Mennonite Church that “it is very beautiful to see how, within this very serious and tragic situation, there is also so much solidarity”.

He also warned of “the very serious situation” in the West Bank. “Just a few days ago, there was a pogrom by quite a few settlers against a Palestinian village, resulting in one death and numerous damages,” he said, warning of worsening tensions despite the presence of Israeli security forces.

“The risk of explosion is there, which is why we must work hard, first of all for a ceasefire in Gaza and then also to restore order, security, and ordinary life as much as possible – as much as one can, speak of ordinary life – throughout the West Bank,” he said. “We must turn the page, but it is not simple.”

The fighting in the West Bank, he said, “is a palpable, concrete example of how hatred, rancour, contempt have led to increasingly extreme and difficult-to-contain forms of violence”.  

He added that, “therefore, we must work a lot, not only at the political level but also at the religious level, because the backdrop of this violence is also religious, to ensure that these agitators, these extremists, are set aside, isolated, and do not have all the strength they have now.”

Munther Isaac, an Evangelical pastor in Bethlehem, said a Palestinian Christian family had been expelled by settlers from their land near the town in an act of “ethnic cleansing” and forced to live in a tent. He warned that “this is what the settler activity is all about” but said it was “powerful” to see young Jews and Muslims support the family.

A week earlier, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem criticised Israeli police for closing Mount Tabor to thousands of Christians on the Feast of the Transfiguration. While the police claimed the celebration lacked necessary government approvals, the patriarchate called it an unjustified restriction on religious freedom.

Its statement added that “such actions dismiss the integral role of Christians within the societal fabric, imposing undue restrictions rather than fulfilling the state’s duty to facilitate the practice of religious practices”.

On 18 August, a delegation of US and Palestinian Christians held a protest at the Gaza border, calling for a ceasefire.

Scott Wright of Pax Christi USA said: “As US citizens we ask God for forgiveness for the way our nation has contributed to the horrific death and destruction in Gaza. We have heard over and over again that the US is enabling the war with our weapons and political cover, and the silence of too many Christian leaders.”

The Pax Christi protest on the Gaza border. Credit: Paul Jeffrey/Life on Earth Pictures

Pope Francis said on Monday that the war between Israel and Hamas threatened to become a full-scale regional war, calling again for peace.

He emphasised Lebanon’s unique role as a land of diverse communities living in harmony “where different religions and confessions encounter one another in a spirit of fraternity”, and that “Lebanon is, and must remain, a project for peace”.

Bishop Ruperto Santos of Antipolo appealed to thousands of Filipino expatriates in Lebanon to return home in the face of the growing threat of war between Israel and the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah. 

Bishop Santos, the president of the Philippines Bishops’ Commission for Pastoral Care for Migrants and Itinerant People, urged migrants “for your safety, please continue to follow the directives of the Philippines government” to avoid the country. 

The Philippines Embassy in Lebanon has called on Filipinos to evacuate the country while airports remain operational.  However, the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs reported that of an estimated 11,000 Filipinos in Lebanon, only about 1,000 expressed willingness to return home.

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