By Judith Sudilovsky JERUSALEM (OSV News) — Just before the children in her kindergarten class went on vacation for the Jewish Sukkot festival, Romina Shvalb, 42, a kindergarten teacher in the quiet Israeli kibbutz of Nir Oz near the Gaza border, had baked challah — the braided sweet bread Jews traditionally eat on the Sabbath […]
Catholic colleges and universities throughout the U.S. have condemned a devastating attack on Israel, while calling for prayers for peace.
After an attack on Israel by Hamas and subsequent retaliation by Israel that has left more than more than 1,300 people dead and thousands more injured, the U.S. bishops’ conference has called for a cessation of violence from all sides, and for Catholics in the U.S. to pray for peace.
Even before the ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad had been called on the evening of May 13 after five days of fighting, Father Gabriel Romanelli of Gaza Holy Family Parish was already tentatively going over travel details for a trip to Egypt with some of the Catholic Scouts youth leaders, which had been long in the making.
Faith leaders and activists for coexistence from across Israel gathered in prayer in front of the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem May 10, in a week that once again saw yet another increase in violence between Israel and the Palestinians.
A British-Israeli mother and her two daughters were killed in a drive-by-shooting terrorist attack in the Jordan valley on April 7, during a week that, instead of seeing the holidays of Passover, Easter and Ramadan celebrated in parallel peacefully, spiraled the region into violence.
With rising tensions between Israelis and Palestinians reaching new heights over the past week amid a spate of fresh killings, Church leaders in the West Bank have condemned the violence and called for a lasting resolution that respects international law.
For nine years, Randa Aweis battled kidney disease, urgently in need of a transplant. In mid-May, a donor was found for the 58-year-old mother of six, a Catholic Palestinian who lives in Jerusalem.
Pope Francis has called on the world’s Catholics to pray May 22 for dialogue, forgiveness and peaceful coexistence in the Holy Land.
The injury and death of so many innocent people, especially children, caused by escalating violence between Israel and the Gaza Strip is “terrible and unacceptable,” putting the area at risk of sinking into “a spiral of death and destruction,” Pope Francis said.
