Deir Al-Balah (Gaza Strip), Apr 22: In the last 18 months of his life, Pope Francis had a frequent evening ritual: He would call the lone Catholic church in the Gaza Strip to see how people huddled inside were coping with a devastating war.
That small act of compassion made a big impression on Gaza’s tiny Christian community and was why he was remembered at his death Monday as a beloved father figure in the beleaguered territory.
“I was deeply saddened. He was our biggest supporter after God,” said Suheil Abu Dawoud, a 19-year-old Christian in Gaza.
Francis “always healed our wounds and asked us to be strong,” he said. “He was always praying for us.”
In his last public appearance, Francis called for a ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas militant group. A fervent advocate of interfaith relations, he also urged Hamas to release the dozens of Israeli hostages it is holding and condemned growing global antisemitism.
In his Easter message, Francis expressed his “closeness to the sufferings of Christians in Palestine and Israel and to all the Israeli people and the Palestinian people.”
While noting the growing antisemitism, he added: “I think of the people of Gaza and its Christian community in particular, where the terrible conflict continues to cause death and destruction and to create a dramatic and deplorable humanitarian situation.”
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Some 59 hostages remain in captivity, 24 of them believed to be alive.
Israel’s offensive has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and killed over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people remain homeless.
Things have worsened over the past month since Israel ended a ceasefire and imposed a closure blocking all humanitarian aid into Gaza. Aid officials say thousands of children have become malnourished and most people have little more than one meal a day.
“I appeal to the warring parties: Call on a ceasefire, release the hostages and come to the aid of starving people that aspires to a future of peace!” Francis said in his final address.
That appeal also went unheeded. On Monday, Israel’s airstrikes killed at least 14 people, according to medical officials.
In Israel, the pope left a more complicated legacy. He was widely appreciated for his outreach to the Jewish people and tough stance against antisemitism. He also was an advocate for freeing the hostages, meeting with their families during the war.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog remembered Francis as a man of “deep faith and boundless compassion.”
“I truly hope that his prayers for peace in the Middle East and for the safe return of the hostages will soon be answered,” Herzog wrote on social media.
In the past year and a half of war, Francis become increasingly outspoken in his criticism of the Israeli military’s harsh tactics. A month into the war, he urged an investigation into whether Israel’s war amounted to genocide -– a charge Israel vehemently denies.
In December, Francis expressed his pain thinking of Gaza, “of such cruelty, to the machine-gunning of children, to the bombing of schools and hospitals. … How much cruelty!”
The next month, he called the ongoing humanitarian crisis “very serious and shameful.”
Francis was mourned throughout the Arab world and by UN officials, including Philippe Lazzarini, head of the agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. He posted on X that the pope’s voice “has contributed to draw the attention to significant dehumanization of the war in Gaza & beyond.”
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim said Francis was a “steadfast advocate for the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, particularly in his unwavering stance against the war and acts of genocide perpetrated against our people in Gaza in recent months.”
The Holy Land’s Christian community has dwindled over the decades through emigration and a low birthrate and makes up just a small percentage of the overall population.
Only 1,000 Christians live in Gaza, an overwhelmingly Muslim territory, according to the US State Department’s international religious freedom report for 2024. The report says the majority of Palestinian Christians are Greek Orthodox but they also include other Christians, including Roman Catholics.
Last year, Francis told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that he calls a priest daily at 7 pm at the Holy Family Church, the only Catholic church in Gaza, to hear what is happening to the nearly 600 people sheltering at the facility.
“The other day, they were happy because they managed to eat some meat. The rest of the time they eat flour, things made of flour,” Francis told the programme. “Sometimes they go hungry and they tell me things. There is a lot of suffering.”
“It’s very tough. Very tough. The food arrives, people rush to get it,” he said.
The Rev. Gabriele Romanelli, a church official, said Francis’ last call came Saturday.
Suhair Anastas, a Palestinian woman who was part of a group that met Francis in 2023 after she fled Gaza, said she felt “great sadness” over his death.
Anastas, who is Greek Orthodox, had sheltered at the church compound in Gaza before she left.
“He did stand by us, by letting us stay at the church and by taking care of everyone in the church,” she said. “I know he wasn’t able to stop the genocide … but I don’t know who can.”
When she met the pope, Anastas had mixed emotions. The experience was “breathtaking,” she said, but she added she also felt traumatised, sad and guilty “that you’re meeting him and others are still under bombardment.”
She said she will remember the pope “for standing with us” to a certain extent, but “I wish he could have done more.”
George Antoun, an official at the church, told The Associated Press the pope’s interest gave the community hope and inspiration.
Francis was like a father worried for his children and would ask whether there was food, medical care and medicine, he said.
“He was with us step by step and day by day,” Antoun said.
“Don’t be afraid. I am with you and praying for you and I will protect you,” Antoun quoted Francis as saying. “He left a big inheritance in Gaza. He is the saint of Gaza.”(AP)
