Pope Francis maintained daily video links with the Catholic community in Gaza while under Israeli siege, bombardment and blockade over the past 18 months.
Fr Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest of Holy Family Church, Gaza’s only Catholic church, told Vatican News that Pope Francis phoned for a final time on Saturday night.
In his calls, placed regularly at seven in the evening, Pope Francis would speak to everyone in the room, not solely to the priest, Fr Romanelli said.
During the ailing pope’s final appearance on Sunday on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, an aide read a message from Francis, who said, “I express my closeness to the sufferings” of Israelis and Palestinians. He called for an “immediate ceasefire” in the “dramatic and deplorable” Gaza war, release of remaining Israeli hostages and aid for the “starving [Palestinian] people” who have suffered from lack of food under an Israeli blockade since March 2nd.
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The pope also condemned a “worrisome” rise in global anti-Semitism.
George Anton, emergency committee head at the Holy Family church, said “We are heartbroken because of the death of Pope Francis, but we know that he is leaving behind a church that cares for us and that knows us by name, every single one of us.”
He added: “We lost a saint who taught us every day how to be brave, how to be patient and stay strong. We lost a man who fought every day in every direction to protect this small herd of his.”
Of the 1,070 Christians who lived in Gaza when the war began, some 400 fled to Egypt and about 600 are said to remain, according to the international NGO Open Doors. It cited a source who said about 75 per cent of Christian homes were damaged for destroyed, forcing their occupants to rely on churches for shelter, sustenance and medical care.
Founded in 1974 for a much larger Catholic community, Holy Family Church was named for the journey through Gaza to Egypt made 2,000 years ago by Mary, Joseph and Jesus. The church continues to hold Mass for its congregation of about 100, and has often hosted as many as 500 homeless Muslim Palestinians in its school.
Some 260 homeless Gazans are at the 12th century Greek Orthodox Church of St Porphyrius.
The sole evangelical Protestant Baptist Church in Gaza, founded in 1954, was heavily damaged by Israeli bombings in 2008, forcing the church’s pastor Hanna Massad and many in its congregation to flee. They hold occasional meetings online.
Israeli air strikes on April 13th on Anglican Al-Ahli hospital, the sole functioning medical facility in Gaza city, damaged the laboratory, emergency section and pharmacy, and the chapel, which had served as a ward for 20 patients. Before the bombing and the March 2nd disruption of humanitarian aid, Jerusalem’s Episcopal Diocese Development officer Sawsan Aranki-Batato said Al-Ahli hospital had received funds covering medical costs of all patients.
In 2009, Palestinian Christians numbered about 50,000 in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, where their number was estimated at 3,000. This number has declined constantly due to repeated Israeli military attacks, economic stress and high employment. Gazan Christians have migrated to the West Bank or abroad, many to countries where family members have already settled.
