By Elise Ann Allen

ROME (Crux) — With the war in Gaza morphing into a full-blown regional conflict as the first anniversary of the Music Festival Massacre approaches, the Church’s leading voice in the Holy Land has called on believers to observe an Oct. 7 day of prayer and fasting for peace.

In a recent statement, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, noted that “for the past year, the Holy Land, and not only, has been plunged into a vortex of violence and hatred never seen or experienced before.”

“The intensity and impact of the tragedies we have witnessed in the past twelve months have deeply lacerated our conscience and our sense of humanity,” he said.

In light of this, as the first-anniversary approaches of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, which prompted a retaliatory offensive that has since spun into an escalating regional conflict, Cardinal Pizzaballa invited faithful to observe Oct. 7 as “a day of prayer, fasting, and penance.”

He said this is because Oct. 7 is now “a date that has become symbolic of the drama we are experiencing.”

Last year, Hamas militants attacked various locations throughout Israel, including a major music festival and several kibbutz communities, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages. Though many of the hostages have been released or killed, around 97 remain unaccounted for.

Israel, in response, launched a retaliatory ground and air offensive in Gaza with the aim of definitively eradicating Hamas, which has left more than 41,000 people in Gaza dead, including children, journalists, and humanitarian workers, according to the Palestinian health authority, although those numbers are disputed.

The conflict has escalated in recent days after the Israeli military last week carried out dozens of air raids throughout Lebanon over the weekend targeting Hezbollah.

Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel in solidarity with the citizens of Gaza and has set a ceasefire in Gaza as a condition to stop its cross-border attacks.

In response, Israel last week assassinated the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and they also killed Nabil Kaouk, another high-ranking Hezbollah official, dealing a significant blow to the group amid a cross-border conflict.

Over the past 24 hours, Beirut has been hit by heavy Israeli strikes that left an estimated 37 people dead and 151 wounded, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Israeli fighter jet strikes on the Tulkarem refugee camp in the occupied West Bank also killed an additional 18 Palestinians.

In a sign of a potential escalation of their ground offensive in Lebanon, the Israeli military has issued an immediate evacuation order for the residents of 20 southern towns in Lebanon, marking the first time Israel has told Lebanese communities north of a UN-proposed buffer zone to evacuate.

Pope Francis prayed for peace in Ukraine and the Middle East during a public Mass in Belgium last week. He also insisted that any act of military defense “must always be proportionate to the attack.”

“When there is something disproportionate, it makes you see a dominating tendency that goes beyond morality,” he said.

Pope Francis echoed Cardinal Pizzaballa’s call for a day of prayer and fasting on Oct. 7, publishing a post-Thursday on social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, asking everyone “to take part in a day of #Prayer and fasting for #Peace in the world” on Oct. 7.

In his statement, Cardinal Pizzaballa lamented that the violence unfolding in the Middle East “has also found its way into political and social language and actions.”

“It has struck a profound blow to the common feeling of belonging to the Holy Land, to the consciousness of being part of a plan of Providence that wanted us here to build together His Kingdom of peace and justice, and not to make it instead a reservoir of hatred and contempt, of mutual rejection and annihilation,” he said.

Cardinal Pizzaballa reiterated his condemnation of “this senseless war” and the destruction it has resulted in and called on all parties to “stop this drift of violence” and to find a way out of the conflict.

“We can only call once again on those in authority and those who bear the grave responsibility of making decisions in this context to a commitment to justice and respect for every person’s right to freedom, dignity, and peace,” he said.

He said believers themselves have a duty to work for peace, first of all by rejecting feelings of hatred and instead choosing to do good for everyone.

“By committing ourselves, each in our own community contexts and in the forms we can, we should support those in need, help those who are personally invested in alleviating the suffering of those affected by this war, and promote every action of peace, reconciliation, and encounter,” he said.

Cardinal Pizzaballa stressed the need for conversion and prayer and noted that October is also the month dedicated to the rosary.

“May each of us, with the rosary or in whatever form he or she sees fit, personally but better again in community, find a moment to pause and pray,” bringing to God “our desire for peace and reconciliation,” he said.