holy family church in gaza

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Deadly strike on the only Catholic Church in Gaza

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Israel said Thursday that it “deeply regrets” a deadly strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church, the Church of the Holy Family, which killed three people.  The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged it hit the church “mistakenly“.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which has jurisdiction for Roman Catholics in Gaza, said the Holy Family Church was struck by Israel on Thursday morning. The church has become a shelter for the enclave’s tiny Christian community amid the 20-month war.

The office of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “Israel deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza’s Holy Family Church. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy.”

“Israel is investigating the incident and remains committed to protecting civilians and holy sites,” the office added in a statement.  The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged it hit the church “mistakenly“.

Pope Leo received a phone call from Netanyahu on Friday, following the strike, the Vatican said, in which the patriarch expressed the importance of protecting places of worship. During the phone call, which Netanyahu’s office is yet to comment on, Leo renewed his calls for a ceasefire to be reached by the warring sides in Gaza, a statement said.

Pope Leo “again expressed his concern for the dramatic humanitarian situation of the population in Gaza, whose heartbreaking price is paid especially by children, the elderly and the sick,” according to the statement.

When the early morning shell hit the church, about 600 men, women and children had been sheltering there, including about 50 people with disabilities and ill children cared for by the Missionaries of Charity, .

Pope Leo also telephoned Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, July 18, telling him, “It is time to stop this slaughter,” Vatican News reported.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, together with Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, were leading a delegation into Gaza to bring hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid into the enclave and show their support for Gaza’s Catholics, according to a statement from the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. This is highly unusual, given Israel’s tight control over access to the Territory.

The two expressed “the shared pastoral solicitude of the Churches of the Holy Land and their concern for the community of Gaza,” according to a statement from the Jerusalem Patriarchate.

As they were crossing the border, Pope Leo telephoned the Cardinal to “express his closeness, love, prayer, support and desire to do everything possible for there to be not only a ceasefire but also an end to this tragedy,” the cardinal told Vatican News.

“Pope Leo said repeatedly that it is time to stop this slaughter, and that what has happened is unjustifiable, and that we must ensure there are no more victims,” he said.

The Vatican press office said the pope also told the Cardinal that he intends to do “everything possible to stop the needless slaughter of innocents.”

“With the patriarch (Cardinal Pizzaballa), the pope turned his thoughts to all the innocent victims, those of yesterday’s attack and all those of this time of sorrow in the Holy Land and throughout the Middle East,” the press office said in a brief statement.  The pope also asked the Cardinal about those who had been injured in the attack and their condition, it said.

Pope Leo then telephoned Father Carlos Ferrero, the provincial superior of the Institute of the Incarnate Word — the religious order to which Father Romanelli belongs — to express “his closeness to those in the community — faithful and religious — who were with him.”

The pope “assures everyone of his prayers and unceasing commitment to peace, the only way that protects humanity on all sides,” it said.

Everyone in Gaza “will not be forgotten, nor will they be abandoned,” the patriarchate said in a written statement July 18.

The two expressed “the shared pastoral solicitude of the Churches of the Holy Land and their concern for the community of Gaza,” according to a statement from the Jerusalem Patriarchate.

The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged it hit the church “mistakenly.

 

Source:  Vatican News Service

Home » holy family church in gaza

The only Catholic church in Gaza receives aid from the Vatican

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The plight of Christians in the Holy Land….especially in Gaza, is dire.  The following article is courtesy of Vatican News Service:

As the Holy Land marked a grim first anniversary Oct. 7 of the Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities and subsequent Israel-Hamas war that has devastated the Gaza Strip, the papal almoner raised $35,000 in one afternoon from delegates to the Synod on Synodality and immediately sent it to Holy Family Parish in Gaza City.

“In addition to $35,000 donated by synodal delegates in one day, the Holy Father topped the sum with additional $32,000 and that same night the money was sent to the nunciature in Jerusalem,” Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, told OSV News.
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He asked synod members in Rome to give alms after their synodal session Oct. 7, a day of prayer, fasting and penance for peace in the Holy Land. Almsgiving “must make us suffer, must hurt us, because we give up what belongs to us in order to give to our neighbor who is in need or even about to die,” he said.

All funds collected in a “big, huge” basket in front of the synod hall were sent through the papal embassy in Jerusalem to Father Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest at Holy Family Parish, “whom the pope calls every day at 4 p.m.,” Cardinal Krajewski said.

Gaza Strip Holy Family Catholic Church
photo/courtesy Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem)

Father Romanelli gathered the parish children that night to thank synod delegates for their generosity. In a video obtained by OSV News, he said that “with a little group” of children, representing over 500 people sheltering in the parish premises, he wanted to “thank the Holy Father, Pope Francis, the synodal fathers, for all you did to help, through the almoner, Cardinal Konrad.”  Father Romanelli was thankful for the “prayer, closeness and concrete help” because “everyone needs everything” in Gaza, he said in the video.

Cardinal Krajewski said he played the video to synod delegates Oct. 8 and they were “very moved,” seeing over 30 children and some parents with Father Romanelli in the middle, surrounded by his flock.

During an Oct. 7 Mass accompanied by recitation of the rosary and vespers for peace in the Holy Land, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa said in Jerusalem’s pro-cathedral that “what has happened and is happening in Gaza leaves us stunned and beyond understanding.”
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But as “on one hand diplomacy, politics, multilateral institutions and the international community have shown all their weakness,” the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem said. “On the other, we have also been supported.”

Cardinal Pizzaballa stressed that “the Holy Father has repeatedly called on all parties involved to stop this drift, but he has also expressed human solidarity with our community in Gaza in concrete ways and has also given them concrete support.”

Cardinal Krajewski told OSV News that “in the Gospel there is no ‘I’ll help tomorrow’ — in the Gospel there is a ‘now,’ there is an urgency to help, and that’s exactly what needed to happen on Oct. 7,” he stressed. “They need our support now, not tomorrow,” he said, expressing happiness that the basket “filled up quickly” and he could send the funds to Jerusalem “that same evening.”
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Pope Francis sent a letter to Catholics in the Middle East on Oct. 7, the day “the fuse of hatred was lit,” something that “did not sputter, but exploded in a spiral of violence.” Christians who decided to remain in the land “of which the Scriptures speak most often,” he said, are “sprouts of hope.” The pope thanked them for “wanting to remain in your lands” and “being able to pray and love despite everything.”

The pontiff told Catholics living through difficulties of war in the region that “the light of faith leads you to testify to love amid words of hatred, to encounter amid growing confrontation, to unity amid increasing hostility.”

“Pope Francis remembers about Gaza Christians every day. He calls every day but also, as we can see by this fundraiser, sends concrete help,” Cardinal Krajewski said.

“This is the position of the church — we don’t leave anyone behind — and even if we can’t be there physically, we are close and want to show it in every possible way,” the papal almoner said.

Amid the horrors of Hamas attack that saw 1,200 Israelis killed on Oct. 7 and 250 taken hostage and the subsequent Israel-Hamas war that to date has left over 42,000 Palestinians dead in the Gaza Strip, according to Gaza Health Ministry, Cardinal Pizzaballa said that “in such dramatic context, let us face it: This year has put our faith in a test. It is not easy to live in faith during these hard times.”

“The words ‘hope’, ‘peace’, ‘coexistence’ seem to us to be theoretical and far from reality. … But it is exactly here that our Christian faith must find a visible expression,” he said.

“We are called to think beyond the logic calculations, we cannot stop only at human reflections that trap us in our grief, without opening perspectives,” he said. “We are called to read these challenges in the light of the Word of God, a Word that accompanies and widen our hearts. And we have to continue doing so.”

The patriarch concluded, “In this time when violence seems to be the only language, we will continue to speak of and believe in forgiveness and reconciliation.

Here is our page describing Holy Family Church in Gaza.