The Vatican appears to be loosing patience with Israel. On Saturday (19 July), Pope Leo spoke to Israel prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu on the phone, but the Pope used strong language when referring to Gaza in his speech after the Angelus on Sunday.
Pope Leo XIV expressed his “deep sorrow” over the recent Israeli attack on the Catholic parish in Gaza, and called for “an immediate halt to the barbarity” in the Strip.
After the Holy Family church was struck on Thursday morning, three of the approximately 600 Gazans sheltering there were killed, and several others, including the parish priest Fr Gabriel Romanelli, were injured.
Speaking on Sunday after reciting the Angelus prayer at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, the Pope named the three victims – Saad Issa Kostandi Salameh, Foumia Issa Latif Ayyad, and Najwa Ibrahim Latif Abu Daoud – and said he was “close” to them and their families.
Pope Leo then stressed that the attack “is just one of the continuous military attacks against the civilian population and places of worship in Gaza”.
The Pope appealed for “an immediate halt to the barbarity of the war” and for “a peaceful resolution of the conflict”. He urged the international community to observe humanitarian law and respect the obligation to protect civilians, “as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, indiscriminate use of force and forced displacement of the population”.
Pope Leo brought his appeal to a close with a message to “our beloved” Christian communities in the Middle East, saying he understood they felt they could “do little, in the face of this tragic situation”.
The head of Vatican diplomacy, Cardinal Pietro Pasolin, in an interview with RAI 2 described Gaza as a war without limits.
Radio Vaticana said in editorial by its director Andrea Tornieeli, that the images of the strike's aftermath speak volumes: a shell fired from an Israeli army tank directly hit the Holy Family Church, the only Catholic parish in Gaza.
"Five hundred people—families who have lost their homes—have taken refuge in the compound comprising two churches and a school for almost two years.
Three people lost their lives, and another ten are injured. One of those injured, Suhail, contributes to L’Osservatore Romano with his small column: “I write to you from Gaza.”
The most recent, on July 8, was titled “Love Is Stronger Than War” and concluded as follows: “Let us pray that not only Gaza, but the whole world may one day live in peace, through mutual forgiveness and reconciliation. A day when there will be no more wars, because love is stronger than war.”
Israeli authorities have apologized, stating that it was a mistake, that Israel respects places of worship, and that an investigation will be conducted into the incident.
Such statements can hardly be reassuring. Not only because they are contradicted by the images of mosques reduced to rubble and churches attacked—the raid on the Orthodox church of Saint Porphyrius cost dozens of lives, for example—but also because, after a year and a half, there are still no results from the investigation into the killing of two Christian women shot by a sniper in the Gaza parish.
Particularly significant in this regard are the words spoken by the Israeli Ambassador to Italy, Jonathan Peled: "We have no intention of endangering civilian institutions. But the terrorists are everywhere, even in public buildings like schools and, unfortunately, places of worship."
These statements are striking because, in some way, they provide the context for what has been described as a "mistake." Five hundred unarmed people—many of whom regularly gather to pray the rosary—unwittingly became collateral targets because, as Ambassador Peled says, "these are sometimes the consequences of war."
As readers and listeners of Vatican News know well, we did not wait for Christian deaths to talk about the daily massacres in Gaza, where dozens of innocent children, women, and men are killed every week as collateral victims of raids or strikes by those who are supposed to ensure the safe distribution of food.
We do not report on the victims in Gaza only now that they are Christians or because Suhail was injured.
All innocent victims cry out for vengeance in the sight of God, every life is sacred, and Christians of every denomination in Gaza share in all things the fate of their people, the martyred Palestinian people.
The inhumane massacre against Israel perpetrated by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, was condemned by the Holy See with unambiguous words, while calling for the release of all hostages and recognizing Israel's right to defend itself.
However, that inhuman massacre—to the detriment of so many innocent civilians—cannot justify 60,000 dead and cities razed to the ground. It cannot justify the silence and inanity of so many who pretend not to see.
This is why we will never tire of denouncing the absurdity of this war by repeating the words Pope Leo XIV addressed to the Reunion of Aid Agencies for the Oriental Churches (ROACO) on June 26. “All of us, by virtue of our humanity, are called upon to examine the causes of these conflicts, to identify those that are real, and to attempt to resolve them. But also to reject those that are false, the result of emotional manipulation and rhetoric, and to make every effort to bring them to light. People must not die because of fake news.”
We are called to overcome that globalization of alternating stages of indifference, which makes us rightly indignant about some victims while overlooking others.
We are called to look realistically at the situation in the Middle East and the absurd escalation of war. New fronts are continuously opened, as if the survival of the ruling leaders, both in terrorist organizations and in states, depended on the endless perpetuation of wars instead of peace.
It is time for the international community to finally regain the courage to intervene with all the tools that the law makes available: to silence weapons, to stop the massacres, and to put an end to power games whose price is paid by thousands of innocent victims.
source: commonspace.eu with Radio Vaticana (Vatican City)
