After the Angelus prayer on Sunday, 20 July, Pope Leo XIV expressed his sorrow that a military strike by the Israeli army had hit the Catholic Church of the Holy Family in Gaza, killing three people. The Pope noted that this attack was just one among many assaults on Gaza’s population and on holy sites.
On Thursday morning, 17 July, when an Israeli bomb struck the Church of the Holy Family in Gaza, around 600 people were inside seeking refuge. The parish priest, Fr. Gabriel Romanelli, as well as several others, were wounded. Three people were killed in the strike. After the Angelus prayer, at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, Pope Leo named the three people who died in the attack: Saad Issa Kostandi Salameh, Foumia Issa Latif Ayyad, and Najwa Ibrahim Latif Abu Daoud. The Pope said that he was close to them and their families.
The Holy Father appealed to the warring parties for an immediate end to the barbaric acts of war and for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. He urged the international community to uphold humanitarian law and to respect the duty to protect civilians, “as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, the use of arbitrary force, and the forced displacement of populations.” The Pope concluded his message to the “beloved” Christians of the Middle East by saying that he understood they felt they could do little “in this tragic situation.” “You are in the heart of the Pope and of the whole Church,” he said. “Thank you for your witness to the faith.”
Conversation with Netanyahu
Earlier in the day, speaking to reporters after celebrating Mass in the nearby town of Albano, Pope Leo stressed the need “to pray for peace and to try to persuade all parties to sit at the negotiating table, to start dialogue, and to lay down their arms.” “The world is tired,” the Pope said. “So many conflicts, so many wars.”
The Pope was then asked about his phone call on Friday with Benjamin Netanyahu, during which he appealed for “a renewed effort” to end the conflict and expressed his sorrow over “the heavy toll” being paid by Gaza’s civilians. “We emphasised the need to protect the holy places of all religions,” the Holy Father said, “and to respect people and holy sites and to strive to leave behind all violence and hatred.”
Statement from Bishop Raimo on the attack against Gaza’s Catholic Church
Following the incident, Bishop Raimo Goyarrola of Helsinki – like many other Church leaders – issued a statement. He wrote: “I extend my sincere condolences to the Catholic community in the area and to all those in Gaza suffering from the war, and I condemn this shameful act against the house of God and against civilians. It is yet another example of the madness of war and a reminder that the bill for all violence is paid also by the innocent.”
Bishop Raimo also said he joins Pope Leo XIV’s appeal for an immediate ceasefire. He asks “all the faithful of the Catholic Church and all people of good will in Finland to pray, both individually and together, for the inhabitants of Gaza, regardless of their religion, so that Christ, the Prince of Peace, may grant them and the whole world true peace, reconciliation, and the hope of a future.”
KATT / Vatican News (Juho Sankamo)
Photo: Prayers in the Church of the Holy Family in Gaza despite the threat of war.