Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI
Sunday, 20 July 2025
VaticanMedia
Castel Gandolfo (Agenzia Fides) – “I express my profound sadness regarding last Thursday’s attack by the Israeli army on the Catholic Parish of the Holy Family in Gaza City”. Pope Leo expressed his clear and explicit words today, referring to the Israeli raid on the compound of the Latin Catholic Church dedicated to the Holy Family in the Gaza Strip.After the Angelus prayer, which he recited for the second time before the crowd gathered in Piazza della Libertà in Castel Gandolfo, Pope Leo clearly recalled those responsible for the tragedy, and also recalled the names of the three victims of the Israeli attack: Saad Issa Kostandi Salameh, Foumia Issa Latif Ayyad, and Najwa Ibrahim Latif Abu Daoud. “This act, unfortunately,” Pope Leo continued, “adds to the continuous military attacks against the civilian population and places of worship in Gaza.” The Pope once again called for an immediate halt to the barbarism of the war and for a peaceful resolution of the conflict. He appealed “to the international community to observe humanitarian law and to respect the obligation to protect civilians, as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, the indiscriminate use of force and the forced displacement of the population”.He also reaffirmed his closeness to “our beloved” Middle Eastern Christians: “I deeply sympathise,” the Bishop of Rome told them, “with your feeling that you can do little in the face of this grave situation. You are in the heart of the Pope and of the whole Church. Thank you for your witness of faith.”On Friday, July 18, as reported in the statement released by the Holy See Press Office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a telephone conversation with Pope Leo regarding “the military attack by the Israeli army” that struck the Church of the Holy Family in Gaza, killing three people and injuring others, including some seriously. On the Israeli side, this tragic event was presented as an “accident” or a “mistake.” That same Friday evening, in an interview with an Italian television channel, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin also stated that “it’s legitimate to doubt that the raid on the church in Gaza was a ‘mistake’, rather than the result of “a desire to hit a Christian church knowing how much Christians are an element of moderation in the Middle East even in relations between Palestinians and Jews.” Therefore,” Cardinal Parolin added, “there would once again be a desire to eliminate any element that could help achieve at least a truce and then peace.”Today, in the brief catechesis delivered before the Angelus, Pope Leo (who had presided over the Eucharistic Concelebration in the Cathedral of Albano this morning) drew inspiration from the day’s liturgical readings to draw attention to the dynamics of hospitality: that practiced by Abraham and his wife Sarah toward the Lord, made present in the form of three mysterious strangers, and that reserved for Jesus by the sisters Martha and Mary.”Every time we accept the invitation to the Lord’s Supper and participate in the Eucharistic table,” Pope Leo recalled, “it is God himself who ‘comes to serve us.’ And yet, our God first knew how to be a guest, and today too he stands at our door and knocks.” The Pontiff focused in particular on the Gospel episode of the hospitality offered to Jesus by Mary and Martha, the former listening to the Lord’s words, the latter working hard to welcome him and complaining about her sister’s lack of cooperation. “Martha,” the Pontiff acknowledged, “is a generous person, but God calls her to something more beautiful than generosity itself. He calls her to come out of herself.” Only this—added the Bishop of Rome—”makes our life flourish: opening ourselves to something that distracts us from ourselves and at the same time fulfills us. At the moment when Martha complains because her sister has left her alone to serve, Mary seems to have lost all sense of time, won over by the word of Jesus. She is no less concrete than her sister, nor any less generous. However, she seized the opportunity.” (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 20/7/2025)
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