Gaza Latin parish’s mission: prayers and outreach
The world looks to Gaza and sees bombs and deaths. Fr Youssef Asaad and the Holy Family parish post testimonies on social media about charity, solidarity and celebrations that unite Catholics and Orthodox. Muslim families are also supported. Patriarch Pizzaballa tells Gaza Christians that they are not alone. Today the pope will pray in St Peter's for peace. In Israel, support for an invasion of Gaza is collapsing.
Jerusalem (AsiaNews) – In recent weeks, the world has been watching with attention and concern the escalating war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, with its burden of deaths, especially civilians, and destruction.
The rockets fired by the Islamic extremist movement and Israeli air raids have so far made little distinction between military targets and hospitals, churches, mosques and private homes.
However, since the start of the conflict, a voice has emerged from Gaza calling for prayers and peace, bearing witness to a faith that goes beyond the logic of bombs and blood, that of Fr Youssef Asaad, assistant parish priest of the Latin parish of the Holy Family.
The parish priest, Fr Gabriel Romanelli, was outside the Strip at the time of Hamas’s attack, and has not yet been allowed by Israel to return to Gaza, despite repeated requests.
After opening the parish church to the displaced, Fr Youssef began organising activities, celebrating Mass every day, and leading prayer services posted on his Facebook page and that of the parish with one goal: peace.
Pope Francis will do the same today at 6 pm, in St Peter's Basilica, with the recitation of the rosary and Eucharistic adoration, calling for the end to violence in the Holy Land.
Fr Youssef’s daily posts show that life in the parish is intense. From the Mass to the rosary, from the verse of the psalm of the day to invocations for peace, the Holy Family is a place that is alive, active, stronger than bombs and conflict.
On 15 October, the parish held a baptism, a response to the massacre of civilians in St Porphyrius Church, which Fr Youssef announced and described on social media.
The Holy Family today is sheltering more than 700 people - Christians but supports also Muslims families - many of whom have seen their homes damaged or destroyed by war. The Israeli army repeatedly called for their evacuation, ordering the assistant parish priest, the nuns and the faithful to move to the south of the Strip.
But the sense of closeness to their church – which offers food, shelter and care despite the fact that resources are increasingly scarce – is stronger than the logic of death and war, to which they respond with early morning Masses, rosary recitations, adorations of the Blessed Sacrament and a second Mass at the end of the day attended by Catholics and Orthodox.
Pope Francis supports and follows this display of faith to the outside world, calling Fr Youssef in Gaza and Fr Romanelli in Bethlehem almost every day for information and updates on the situation.
Meanwhile, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Card Pierbattista Pizzaballa, addressed Gaza Christians in a video message yesterday; in it, he speaks of "hard times", hoping however "to be able to reach you soon, as every year, to meet, pray and exchange testimonies with you".
In Arabic and English, the cardinal offers prayers and every effort to end the conflict, saying he is "encouraged" by "your testimony, by the way you are living this terrible situation."
"Your suffering and pain are my concern and I dedicate all my time in prayer first of all, but also in dialogue with all those responsible in order to put an end to this situation."
The Latin primate ends his message telling Gaza Christians that they are not "alone" because "all the Christian community in the Holy Land and not only in the Holy Land, all over the whole world, is with you, praying for you and supporting you", together with the "18 brothers and sisters who are in heaven praying for you". The latter is a reference to the people killed in an Israeli air strike against the St Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church.
Meanwhile, opposition is growing in Israel against the ground operation announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in response to Hamas’s attack. So far, its implementation remains uncertain and only brief night raids have taken place.
A poll by the Maariv newspaper shows that 49 per cent of Israelis are against a full-scale ground offensive, saying that "it is better to wait and see", 29 per cent are in favour, while 22 per cent say they are undecided.
The figure is significant when compared to a similar survey published by the same newspaper on 19 October, when 65 per cent of respondents said they were firm supporters of a ground attack. In a week, support has plummeted by 36 points.
The issue of Israeli hostages (at least 229 according to the latest reports) in the hands of Hamas and the difficulties of an operation on the ground is weighing heavily, with Hamas counting on a major network of tunnels to conduct urban guerrilla warfare that would end up bogging Israel down with possibly heavy casualties.
While the overall support for an all-out war against Hamas seems to be cooling among Israelis, there is also growing fear that the conflict could escalate and embroil the entire Middle East and beyond, as some prominent figures recently pointed out to AsiaNews.
For his part, Pope Francis, who will lead the Rosary and Eucharistic adoration in St Peter's today, has renewed his call for prayers.
During the service, a passage from the "Sermons" of Saint Augustine will be read, in which the great theologian asserts that “while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son” while “in Christ we do find greater love, seeing that he gave up his life not for his friends but his enemies.”
A second reflection is taken from the Saint John XXIII, who in his Easter message on 13 April 1963 said: “May He banish from the souls of men whatever might endanger peace.”
“May He enlighten the rulers of peoples so that in addition to their solicitude for the proper welfare of their citizens, they may guarantee and defend the great gift of peace;
“may He enkindle the wills of all, so that they may overcome the barriers that divide, cherish the bonds of mutual charity, understand others, and pardon those who have done them wrong; by virtue of his action,
“may all peoples of the earth become as brothers, and may the most longed-for peace blossom forth and reign always among them.”
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12/10/2023 20:09
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