Rome Newsroom, Jul 20, 2025 / 08:46 am (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV on Sunday prayed by name for the victims of a deadly Israeli strike on the only Catholic parish in Gaza, decrying the “barbarism of the war” as he renewed his call for an immediate ceasefire.
“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, which as you know killed three Christians and gravely wounded others,” the pope said in his Angelus address from the papal estate at Castel Gandolfo, about 16 miles southeast of Rome.
He named the dead — Saad Issa Kostandi Salameh, Foumia Issa Latif Ayyad, and Najwa Ibrahim Latif Abu Daoud — and said, “I am especially close to their families and all the parishioners.”
The July 17 strike on the parish compound also wounded nine others, including the local parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli. The church had been serving as a shelter for more than 600 people since the conflict began in October 2023, including Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Muslims.
“Sadly, this act adds to the continuous military attacks against the civilian population and places of worship in Gaza,” Leo said. “I again call for an immediate halt to the barbarism of the war and for a peaceful resolution of the conflict.”
“I renew my appeal 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.”
Thursday’s attack drew swift condemnation from Church leaders. On the same day, Pope Leo sent a telegram signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin lamenting the loss of life and injuries caused by the military attack and calling for an immediate ceasefire. The following day, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III entered Gaza to offer spiritual, moral, and material comfort.
According to Caritas Jerusalem, two of the victims were outside the main parish building — which had been repurposed into a shelter — when the explosion occurred. Salameh, 60, the parish caretaker, was in the courtyard, and Ayyad, 84, was sitting inside a Caritas psychosocial support tent when shrapnel and falling debris struck them. Both later died at Al-Mamadani Hospital due to what Caritas called a “severe shortage of medical resources and blood units in Gaza.”
The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged responsibility, stating that “fragments from a shell fired during operational activity in the area hit the church mistakenly.”
Pope Leo XIV also spoke on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the strike, urging the reactivation of peace negotiations. He reiterated his concern for the humanitarian situation of the population in Gaza, “whose heartbreaking price is being paid, in particular, by children, the elderly, and the sick,” a statement from the Vatican said.
After praying for the Gaza victims during his Angelus address, Pope Leo XIV offered a message of solidarity to all Christians in the region.
“To our beloved Middle Eastern Christians, I say: I deeply sympathize with your feeling that you can do little in the face of this grave situation,” he said. “You are in the heart of the pope and of the whole Church. Thank you for your witness of faith.”
He entrusted them to the Virgin Mary, “woman of the Levant, dawn of the new Sun that has risen in history,” and prayed that she “protect you always and accompany the world towards dawns of peace.”
Sunday marked the second time Pope Leo has led the Angelus prayer from Castel Gandolfo during his two-week summer retreat. Earlier in the day, the pope offered a Mass for local Catholics in the nearby Cathedral Basilica of Saint Pancras in Albano.
He ended his Angelus address by greeting pilgrims in the courtyard, including students and staff from the nearby Catholic Institute of Technology and a group of Catholic scouts on a Jubilee pilgrimage destined for the tomb of Blessed Carlo Acutis, whom Pope Leo is expected to canonize in September as the first millennial Catholic saint.
The Vatican has confirmed that Pope Leo XIV will return to Vatican City on Tuesday.
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“Sadly, this act adds to the continuous military attacks against the civilian population and places of worship.”
I am not sure that this statement accurately reflects the situation, but for the sake of argument let us accept it for now.
Will there be a similar statement regarding the Muslim murders of thousands of Catholics and other christians in Nigeria? And stating that these are Muslim murders?
Any forthcoming Vatican statements on the Chinese attacks on Catholics, clergy and churches in China?
Macht geht vor Recht. The Palestinians “have no cards”. The Christian West is Christian no longer. Its holy places, and the Christians of the Holy Land, have no defenders. Thank you Pope Leo for reminding everyone that there is a greater power, that will eventually triumph, even over those who have their pathetic, cruel cards today.
It would be true if the Pope directed those comments at Hamas and Islamic terrorists worldwide. His focus on Israel to the exclusion of Islamic terrorism is inexplicable in Islam’s cultural war against all infidels.
CFCz: Separate issues, different approaches. Give the man a break!
Separate issues??? Seriously??? How many rockets, cowardly hidden behind women and children, or within hospitals themselves, by cowardly terrorists, must be tolerated by the civilian population of Israel?
Painting a picture that accommodates Islamic terrorism, which began the war, is an act of gross moral cowardice by Leo. I expect we’ll have more episodes of his imitating Francis. After all, Francis downplayed the evil of slicing off the heads of children.
Given that Palestinian rockets have killed at most a few dozen outside its territory over the last few decades, killing 30,000 civilians and trying to ethnically cleanse the rest in order that it “never” happen again is deranged, cuel and immoral. In the real world, countries can suffer aggression, go to war and defeat aggressors, but rarely do they expect civilised onlookers to applaud them while they make the offending nation disappear so it never happens again. Never is a very big word in the real world. Life will always be dangerous. We are entitled to protect ourselves from stones being thrown at us, and fight back. But we can’t dream of living in a world where “never” will anyone exist who can throw a stone at us. That’s insanity.
Edward: Proportionality in the use of force in going to war (ccc2312) read the catechism. A great wrong was done to Israel, but that does not justify their disproportionate response and their annihilation of many innocent people. The blocking of aide-food and medical supplies-is immoral and must be condemned. The Pope as a spiritual leader has both the right and obligation to speak out and stand up for All those oppressed including the Palestinians. Doing so does not imply that he approves or supports Islamic terrorists in any way.
No reply buttons were allowed for the two comments of disinformation. “Ethnic cleansing?” An Orwellian reversal of history in the Middle East, where tens of thousands, without hyperbole, of terrorist attacks have been directed towards Israel with Palestinian leaders calling for the complete annihilation of every Jew in Israel and throughout the world. This is real genocidal evilness.
And Israel did not deny food and medicine to wounded civilians. They properly sought a process of screening, knowing of the historical moral bankruptcy of “impartial international groups” funneling additional weaponry under such a pretext.
Every sane person knows that if all Palestinians and neighboring Arabs made an honest authentic pledge to lay down all their weapons and abandon the commitment to anti-Jewish genocide tomorrow, there would be permanent peace in the Mideast.
If Israel made a unilateral decision to lay down its arms tomorrow, it would begin the complete annihilation of Israel from the face of the earth.
“‘We will have peace,’ said Theoden at last thickly and with an effort. Several of the Riders cried out gladly. Theoden held up his hand. ‘Yes, we will have peace,’ he said, now in a clear voice, ‘we will have peace, when you and all your works have perished – and the works of your dark master to whom you would deliver us. You are a liar. Saruman, and a corrupter of men’s hearts. You hold out your hand to me, and I perceive only a finger of the claw of Mordor. Cruel and cold! Even if your war on me was just as it was not, for were you ten times as wise you would have no right to rule me and mine for your own profit as you desired – even so, what will you say of your torches in Westfold and the children that lie dead there? And they hewed Hama’s body before the gates of the Hornburg, after he was dead. When you hang from a gibbet at your window for the sport of your own crows, I will have peace with you and Orthanc.“
Anything less than the Holy Father’s full recognition of the justice of the Israeli position is a disgrace.
Crusader;
Good points.
“The IDF ACKNOWLEDGED RESPONSIBILITY (EM) stating that ‘fragments from a shell fired during operational activity in the area hit the Church mistakenly.”
Can anyone out there imagine such a statement and apology from ANY muslim ‘clerics’ or leaders?
No sane person could.
Nobody cares. Justice isn’t ascertained by which side seems to have scored a point, when both sides here are as bad as each other. What the Christian West needs to be in tears of anger about is what happens to its holy places and the Christians in our Holy Land.
That’s a grotesquely shallow, false, and insulting to Our Lord understanding of what it means to be “The Christian West.”
All people matter, and every moment of human moral interaction matters to Christians.
Perhaps I’m misunderstanding your statement, and if so, I apologize. But “both sides” are not “as bad as each other.” The truth of the matter was expressed very well in a comment above: if Hamas laid down their weapons there would be peace; if the Israelis laid down their weapons they would be annihilated.
“Every sane person knows that if all Palestinians and neighboring Arabs made an honest authentic pledge to lay down all their weapons and abandon the commitment to anti-Jewish genocide tomorrow, there would be permanent peace in the Mideast.
If Israel made a unilateral decision to lay down its arms tomorrow, it would begin the complete annihilation of Israel from the face of the earth.”
********
Exactly. Thank you Mr. Baker
Maybe the Gazans will beat their oppressors to death with empty baby bottles.
E Baker, as I wrote before, it’s insanity to demand to live in a world where nobody exists who can throw stones at you. Ethnically cleansing the Palestinians (which has happened and continues) is not merely a slogan. You ought to address that because it’s the cause for the popularity of most of the rhetoric coming from the other side. After all, the Palestinians were there first. While under Turkish and British control something was created in their midst which left them without any “cards”, and they’ve been fighting for their freedom as best they can ever since. Just like the Irish, they didn’t have a state, but it didn’t stop them from fighting. However, the main issue for the Christian West is its sacred sites, its Holy Land, and the Christians who live there. The Pope is articulating very well the Western policy of all time in the region.
I agree with one point. Hammas should stop ethnic cleansing and mass murdering their own people, including their ongoing slaughter of those Palestinians pursuing refuge in Israeli aid camps.
“They were there first”
Please learn some history. Many of the Muslims who displaced Jews from their ancient homeland, following a bloody conquest, while calling themselves Palestinian, began a centuries long process of seeking ways of exterminating the Jewish “infidels.”
“While under Turkish and British control something was created in their midst which left them without any “cards”
Don’t know what a card game has to do with anything, but the Muslim population was never forced to leave when the (something) State of Israel was endorsed and recognized by global consensus at the United Nations, a Jewish homeland necessitated by European “Christians” seeking their extermination as well. Events that forced their emigration to the stateless geographical land of Palestine. For the sake of real Christians, who know humanity also includes non-Christians, the formation of Israel helped preserve Christian holy sites within their land, as they’ve been undergoing systematic destruction in much of the Muslim world.
Imagine what Christian holy places in Israel might look like today minus the protection of the Israeli government?
E Michael Jones reminds us that in 2002, when the IDF occupied Ramallah in the West Bank, the Israelis took over the television stations and immediately began broadcasting pornography. We should be grateful the Holy Land is under the control of Israel.
E Michael Jones as a source of truthful information is not much different than consulting the archives of the Nazi Party for an accurate history of Judaism.
Jones has even faulted whatever whent wrong at VII as a Jewish conspiracy.
Tel Aviv’s protection has seen the majority of the Christians of the Holy Land depart since 1947. Many churches have been destroyed. In comparison, the Ottomans looked good
Many Christians left the Holy Land because of a 78 year continuous war.
Destruction of Churches were largely due to Islamic terrorism. And the Ottoman Empire doesn’t exist anymore, but in its former territories Christians and Jews remain subjects of hate with a desire for the destruction of all their culture and faith.
Like the Irish, the Palestinians weren’t asked about being displaced by people from Europe.The Palestinians have just as much, if not more DNA from the ancient population of Palestine as the immigrants who set up the new state in the 1940s.
The Palestinians were never “displaced.” Most left because they were assured from their own leaders that they could return once the Jewish “infidels” were eliminated.
And bringing DNA into the subject is off the wall preposterous.
They terrorised into leaving, in the 1940swere and onwards. DNA is always helpful in establishing who has lu ks with the pipe population in OT times.
No reply button to your last comment, but your first point of Palestinians having been terrorized is a blatant falsehood, and the notion of discerning ancient history from DNA, which has no such identifiable connection, is not supported by long established historical accounts. Judea was a Jewish civilization, and a civilization stemming from Muslim culture is still a premature proposition.
If even Zio-Evangelicals like Mike Huckabee are speaking out against Israel’s actions, you know that we are reaching a turning point.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/mike-huckabee-rebukes-attackers-of-christian-church-village-crime-against-humanity-and-god/ar-AA1IWzVB?ocid=BingNewsVerp
https://www.theweek.in/news/middle-east/2025/07/21/us-ambassador-mike-huckabee-warns-israel-of-reprisals-over-new-visa-restrictions-rising-hostility-toward-christian-institutions.html