Pope Francis is calling for prayer and fasting on October 7, the first anniversary of the attack on Israel that has led to the current conflict in Gaza.
As the death and destruction continue, so, too, do the daily phone calls from the pope to the Catholic Holy Family Church parish in Gaza City, offering spiritual sustenance to the priests, nuns and parishioners seeking shelter there.
At the start of a special synod on October 2 of Catholic clergy, nuns and laity in Rome, Francis issued a call to prayer and fasting on the anniversary of the event that started the war in Gaza, as the conflict widens in the Middle East.
Pope Francis said that the church is always at the service of humanity "especially in this dramatic hour of our history, as the winds of war and the fires of violence continue to ravage entire peoples and nations."
The pontiff asked everyone to take part in a day of prayer and fasting for peace in the world on October 7.
The war in Gaza began with Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. They are still holding around 100 captives, one-third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israeli airstrikes and ground attacks have killed more than 41,400 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry, with the Israeli military saying the death toll includes thousands of Hamas fighters.
Hamas has been designated a terror group by the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and others.
The Rev. Gabriel Romanelli, the parish priest at the church in Gaza City, told Vatican Radio that the pope calls every day to give the people there "words of comfort and his blessing." The priest said the pope "asks us to protect the children and always encourages us to keep going."
Longtime Vatican watcher Francis X. Rocca has covered the Vatican since 2007, most recently for The Wall Street Journal. He told VOA Pope Francis’ daily phone calls to the Gaza parish are unique.
"It is an extraordinary thing to do, especially if you do it every day,” he said. “For the start of his pontificate, we know that he was making these personal phone calls to various people, sometimes spontaneously, sort of by surprise. But to be doing this regularly, every day, certainly shows a great degree of concern. During the war in Ukraine, he’s also made comments and sent messages and so forth. But I’m not aware that he’s ever done anything like this."
The Holy Family Church is so named because it is believed that Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus passed through the coastal territory into Egypt to flee King Herod’s sword in the first century A.D.
]The church has not escaped the violence of this war between Israel and Hamas.
Two Christian women, Nahida Khalil Anton and her daughter Samar Kamal Anton were killed last December as they walked to the convent on the parish’s complex.
Seven more people were shot and wounded by Israeli gunfire as they "tried to protect others inside the church compound," the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem reported. Israel Defense Forces officials said they were investigating.
Several hundred Palestinians, mainly Christians but also some Muslims, now shelter in the church compound.
The Rev. Rifat Bader, director of the Catholic Center for Studies and Media in Jordan, said there are currently three priests and several nuns from both the late Mother Teresa’s order, The Missionaries of Charity, and Sisters of the Incarnate Word ministering in Gaza. He explained to VOA the importance of the pope’s personal calls.
"We cannot forget these personal, human initiatives every day that the pope is keeping— calling the priests and the nuns there to give a daily encouragement,” he said. “When a priest receives a call from the pope, it is a big thing inside the Catholic Church. You are talking with the successor of Peter. But when this thing is becoming a daily initiative of the pope, really this is a very human touch that the pope is putting inside the minds, the memories, the spirits of these people: priests and community. This is a sign of encouragement, a sign of paternal care of the pope, besides all the diplomatic relations, initiatives."
Bader said that while the Vatican has sought diplomatic efforts for a cease-fire and an end to the conflict, Pope Francis' personal phone calls "put this human touch in the hearts" of people who have experienced great suffering and are desperate for an end to the war.
