Mainstream Obituaries Are Erasing Pope Francis’s Deep Concern for Palestine

Significantly absent in the long obituaries for Pope Francis in both the New York Times and the Washington Post were mentions of his deep concern for the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza. In Francis’s last public message on Easter Sunday, just hours before he died, he had called for a ceasefire in Gaza, and condemned the “deplorable humanitarian situation” there.

The obits also failed to note that Pope Francis had personally telephoned the Holy Family Church in Gaza just about every evening since Israel invaded the territory in October 2023 — including the Saturday night before Easter. The church’s pastor, Rev. Gabriel Romanelli, remembered: “He said he was praying for us, he blessed us, and he thanked us for our prayers.” Other church members said that the Pope “would make sure to speak not only to the priest but to everyone else in the room.”

Pope Francis’s concern for Gaza and Palestine did not start in October 2023. Rev. Munther Isaac, a Palestinian Christian theologian and Lutheran pastor, told Democracy Now:

I think no Palestinian will ever forget when Pope Francis, in 2014, stopped his car, went down, stepped down and prayed at the separation wall separating Jerusalem from Bethlehem — a moment that touched all of us and continued to speak to us for years.

Of course, there was plenty in the life of this remarkable 88-year-old man to include in those obituaries. But the pontiff’s ongoing concern for Gaza surely should have been part of the record in America’s leading newspapers. Those nightly telephone calls were exactly the kind of detail that brings a story to life. Instead, part of Pope Francis’s message is being erased.

So what actually happened at the New York Times? Journalists with first-hand experience there have told me that 95 percent of the self-censorship about Israel/Palestine is unspoken. “No one has to actually tell you to skirt the subject,” one source explained. “You just understand that you have to be very careful.”

Source: Mondoweiss

In Gaza, a small parish mourns their friend, the Pope

Palestinian Christians in Gaza remember Pope Francis and his daily calls to the Catholic church in Gaza. “Gaza was among his last words,” one member of the parish told Mondoweiss. “His voice made us forget the sound of the planes and the bombs.”

Christians around the world are mourning the death of Pope Francis, who passed away on April 21. But in the Gaza Strip, the local Christian community is not just mourning the loss of a religious leader, but the loss of a friend and someone they called “a true father.”

Universally hailed as a champion of the oppressed and the marginalized, the late Pope demonstrated his commitment to this reputation during the past 18 months of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. It has been widely reported that he made regular and near-daily calls to the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza and that he roundly condemned Israel’s actions, describing them as “terrorism” with “the characteristics of a genocide.”

George Anton, head of the emergency committee of the Holy Family Church, tells Mondoweiss that Pope Francis never failed to contact them during the long months of the war. The pontiff’s calls were “a daily necessity” for parishioners, Anton describes, because “he was a true father to every person in the Gaza Strip, a father who cares and shows concern for his children.”

At the start of the genocide, Palestinian Christians in Gaza sought refuge at Gaza’s oldest church, the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius, which dates back to the 5th century. But after it was bombed on October 20, 2023, killing 17 people, including Christian and Muslim families, the rest of Gaza’s Christian population sought refuge at the Holy Family Catholic Church for the rest of the war.

“When we knew the Pope was on the phone, we felt happy and secure that he was with us,” Anton says. “He always asked about the elderly, the children, the women, our food and drink, asked if we had medicine and hospitals. He would say, ‘I pray for you, and you pray for me.’ He would also ask about the people in the streets, whether aid was getting in and reaching us or not, everything.”

Christians in Gaza were in such close contact with Pope Francis that many didn’t believe the news of his death, thinking it was just a rumor, despite knowing that he was in ill health.

“On [Easter] Sunday, he appeared to the world, congratulated Christians, and mentioned the people of Gaza in his speech. We couldn’t believe he had passed away,” Anton says.

“It has never happened in the history of the Church that a Pope would call a small parish located far away every day for 16 months to reassure them that he is with them in this war,” Anton says. “If he could be with us, he would come. He sent the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem to visit us twice during the war.”

A man holds up a phone for the Rev. Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest of Gaza City’s Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Family, to have a video call with Pope Francis as the pope blesses the congregation during Christmas Eve Mass

‘Gaza was among his last words’

The Pope’s short calls left a mark on many parishioners in the Church, says Laila Anton, a member of the flock. “We would finish our prayers and wait for the usual daily call, which often occurred in the evening around 8:00 p.m.,” Anton tells Mondoweiss. “It gave us the strength to endure the difficult conditions we were experiencing.”

Laila Anton says that Pope Francis’s voice symbolized resilience in Gaza and assuaged their fear of the constant bombardment. “We felt at ease, and his voice made us forget the sound of the planes and the bombs, even if only for a few minutes,” she says. “Gaza was among his last words.”

Pope Francis’s teachings were not limited to those inside the Church. According to Father Gabriele Romanelli, the priest in charge of the Holy Family Church in Gaza, the number of displaced Christians in the Church has reached 500.

“Pope Francis always asked us to protect children and vulnerable people needing help,” Father Romanelli tells Mondoweiss. “Thanks to the support of the Catholic Church, thousands of families in the Gaza Strip are receiving aid.”

“Pope Francis was responsible for more than a billion Catholics worldwide, yet he was keen to connect with this small parish,” Father Romanelli adds. “This is evidence of his love and concern for us.”

Source: Mondoweiss