Pope Francis Demands ‘Ceasefire In Holy Land Amid Concerns About Christians
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
VATICAN CITY/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Pope Francis on Sunday demanded an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and said he prays for an end to “the violence in the Holy Land,” especially in Gaza, where minority Christians are among those suffering.
“Let there be a ceasefire. War is always a defeat – always, always. May no one abandon the possibility that the weapons might be silenced,” the pope told pilgrims gathered at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City.
The comments by the pontiff of more than a billion Catholics came as Christians have been among the victims in Gaza, with at least one church damaged by an Israeli air strike that Israel said wasn’t aimed at the church but targeted a nearby Hamas command center.
The October 19 airstrike hit part of the Church of Saint Porphyrius, a 12th-century Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City, killing at least 18 civilians who were sheltering in the church.
Among those killed were family members of former U.S. representative Justin Amash, Worthy News learned.
The former Michigan congressman, born to Palestinian and Syrian Christian parents who immigrated to the United States, said “several” of his relatives passed away in the airstrike.
Amash’s relatives—including two younger women he identified as Viola and Yara, whose picture he posted on X—were among nearly 500 people sheltering in what is Gaza’s oldest active church.
PALESTINIAN COMMUNITY
“The Palestinian Christian community has endured so much. Our family is hurting badly.
May God watch over all Christians in Gaza – and all Israelis and Palestinians who are suffering, whatever their religion or creed,” Amash said in a statement on social media platform X.
The church incident reignited a debate among Christians about Israel’s actions, with Palestinian Christian organizations complaining about “
Western theologians and church leaders who have voiced uncritical support for Israel” who they claim should repent and change.
“Sadly, the actions and double standards of some Christian leaders have gravely hurt their Christian witness and have severely distorted their moral judgment regarding the situation in our land,” they wrote in an open letter.
“We come alongside fellow Christians in condemning all attacks on civilians, especially defenseless families and children. Yet, we are disturbed by the silence of many church leaders and theologians when it is Palestinian civilians who are killed,” the letter stated.
“We are also horrified by the refusal of some Western Christians to condemn the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine and, in some instances, their justification of and support for the occupation. Further, we are appalled by how some Christians have legitimized Israel’s ongoing indiscriminate attacks on Gaza,” they added.
SEVERAL SIGNATORIES
The signatories included Kairos Palestine, Christ at the Checkpoint, Bethlehem Bible College, the East Jerusalem YMCA, the Arab Orthodox Society of Jerusalem, the YWCA of Palestine, the Sabeel Ecumenical Center for Liberation Theology, and the Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees of the Middle East Council of Churches among others.
Their letter came after dozens of American Christian and Jewish leaders signed a letter published in The Jerusalem Post newspaper urging President Joe Biden not to pressure Israel into a “premature ceasefire.”
Reverend Johnnie Moore, president of the Congress of Christian Leaders and a signatory of the letter to Biden, accused the Palestinian Christian organizations responsible for the letter of spreading disinformation and omitting critical facts about Hamas.
Moore noted that the letter doesn’t call for Hamas to stop using Palestinians as human shields and spreads “disinformation” about a church-run hospital blast that Hamas initially blamed on Israel.
The U.S. government concluded that Israel and the Israel Defense Forces didn’t cause the October 17 explosion and said the blast was caused by an “errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza.”
Yet the letter accused Israel of the “heinous massacre at Al-Ahli Anglican-Baptist Hospital.” Moore stressed that the remarks about the hospital tragedy, which Palestinians claimed killed 250 people, “sort of says everything that needs to be said about their letter.”
Israel has vehemently denied it deliberately targets civilian sites and accuses Hamas of hiding its weapons and fighters among innocent residents. The Hamas-led health ministry claims more than 8,000 people have died in Israel’s retaliatory strikes since October 7, when Hamas gunmen massacred 1,400 people in Israel and abducted nearly 230 people.
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