VATICAN CITY (CNS) — With hopes growing for a temporary, humanitarian cease-fire, Pope Francis met at the Vatican Nov. 22 with relatives of Israelis held hostage by Hamas and, separately, with relatives of Palestinians suffering under the Israeli siege of Gaza.
In the midst of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, a Catholic immigration group is joining its voice with Democratic lawmakers urging President Joe Biden to allow Palestinians in the United States to stay here during the conflict.
As the war in Gaza drags on and other global hotspots escalate, Church leaders in both Europe and the Holy Land have again called for peace and disarmament, and for acts of solidarity with those who are suffering.
Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, led his brother bishops in a prayer for wisdom as they began their fall plenary assembly in Baltimore Nov. 13 with a Mass for peace.
These words of a Christian hymn filled churches in Egypt last week as a security situation has been boiling in the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on Oct. 7, when Hamas, the Islamic movement that rules the Gaza Strip, stormed nearby Israeli towns, killing more than 1,400 and abducting hundreds.
Pope Francis and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spoke Nov. 2 over the phone about the latest developments in Gaza, stressing the need to seek avenues for peace and calling for humanitarian corridors to allow aid into the region.
The Israel-Hamas war has led to a shocking rise of antisemitism on college campuses across the country, according to concerned advocates and students, who said the situation is growing more dangerous by the day.
In response to Pope Francis’s repeated pleas for an end to the war in Gaza and his recent day of prayer for peace, Rome’s chief rabbi has said that while armed conflict is always “an offense against human dignity,” at times it’s necessary to defeat evil.
During the past few weeks, the Catholic Church has called for its people across the world to pray for peace in the Middle East, as the Israel-Hamas war ravages on.
The power of prayer was on display at the Cathedral Basilica of St. James as the faithful gathered with Bishop Robert Brennan for a Day of Prayer for Peace on Friday, Oct. 27.
