ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 21, 2025 / 16:43 pm (CNA).
The pastor of the only Catholic church in Gaza, Argentine priest Father Gabriel Romanelli, on Sunday described the current situation after the church was hit by Israeli fire on July 17, leaving three people dead and several injured, including a 19-year-old postulant who remains hospitalized.
In a video posted July 20 on his YouTube channel, Romanelli, a priest of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, began by sharing the bad news: “Unfortunately, the war continues,” he said. “Today there were many deaths, people who were even waiting in the north, where there is a great need for humanitarian aid. The numbers are terrible; there is no final figure yet, but they’re talking about dozens of deaths, many.”
Furthermore, he continued, “the heat is oppressive. Today the heat index was 42 degrees [Celsius; 108 degrees Fahrenheit], and they say it will remain that way for days to come. There have been more evacuations in different places throughout the Gaza Strip, and the bombardment continues unabated. We have had nearby bombardment with some shrapnel falling, and unfortunately, we have come to understand what shrapnel means, which is not just something that makes noise but something that damages, wounds, and kills.”
The priest mentioned that he, too, was injured on Thursday by shrapnel from Israeli fire, which was condemned by various Church leaders and by Pope Leo XIV himself, who spoke on Friday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and on Monday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The good news from Gaza
Romanelli then said there is good news: “We are in God’s grace, we are persevering in the faith. Many have expressed their closeness in every way because of what has happened here: the attack on the Catholic Church here. The patriarchs have come to visit, as I told you.”
The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Italian Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, “is still here, so it’s a blessing for the people to have him, to pray with him, to see him pray, to ask for his blessing, to listen to him, to console him. That he can console us is very gratifying. Everyone’s gratitude is very good news.”
“Other good news is that Nayib, one of our young men in a wheelchair with a lung injury, is doing better. He prays; he’s always been a prayerful man, and he continues to pray and ask for prayers. He’s still hospitalized,” Romanelli said, although the situation at the hospital, so necessary now, “is deplorable.”
“Most of the hospitals in the [Gaza] Strip were destroyed, but Nayib is doing better. His situation is delicate, but he’s doing better,” the priest added.
“Suheil is doing better. He had a major operation and will need to be patient during his recovery,” he continued. “He’s our postulant, whom you know, a great guy. He’s 19 years old and very well-liked here. The young people, the teenagers, the children, the adults are all very moved by what happened, so, well, today we were able to have a conversation. He spoke on the phone, so he’s doing better.”
Praying and working for peace in Gaza and the entire region
The pastor of Holy Family Church also said that “people are still in shock: You can imagine how little time has passed since all of this. The good thing is that we prayed and sang. Although there were bombardments, there has been little flying debris these days, and the children wanted to go out, sing, and yell, so they were seen more in the yard, and they started playing with a soccer ball.”
“And well, we continue to ask you, thanking you for your prayers, and asking you to work, let us all work, and convince the world that peace is possible and necessary,” he continued.
The priest prayed “to the Prince of Peace, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the Blessed Virgin Mary for the gift of peace, especially for Gaza and for the entire region.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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The Zionist state of Israel is not the Israel of the Bible. As Catholics, we must speak with moral clarity: what is unfolding in Gaza is not “self-defense”—it is genocide. Over 58,000 Palestinians are dead, the strip pulverized, children buried in rubble, and churches shelled. On July 17, Israeli tanks bombed Gaza’s only Catholic church, killing parishioners and wounding the priest. This is not biblical prophecy fulfilled—it is apartheid and ethnic cleansing carried out by a modern state claiming divine right.
Too many Catholics remain silent, confused by the false theology of Christian Zionism. But the Catholic Church has never equated the Zionist state of Israel, founded in 1948, with the biblical People of God. The land promises to Israel were fulfilled in ancient times (Joshua 21:43–45) and have nothing to do with the 1948 founding of the modern secular state. The promises were transfigured in Christ (Galatians 3:29) making Church—not any nation-state—the new People of God (Lumen Gentium 9; CCC 781, 839–840, 877).
Zionism is a nationalist project, not a divine one. Its crimes—settler colonialism, genocide, apartheid—are not holy acts. They are sins.
To criticize these evils is not anti-Semitism; it is fidelity to the Gospel. Christ stands with the oppressed, not the occupier. It is time for Catholics to wake up. Silence is complicity. Faith demands truth. Enough is enough.
Do you believe Israel today has the God-given right to exist within the borders God declared and set for it? If you do, then we can discuss how to proceed. If you don’t, you will ALWAYS be part of the problem…
Thank you Leon. This truth must be told and you told it well.
The Israel of the Bible was bigger. Other than that, yes it’s the same land given by God to His Chosen People. He doesn’t break His promises even though we do.
“Anti Zionism” is just the most recent model of anti Semitism being sold to the extreme Right and Left. It’s one of the few things they can agree on. Catholics should know better.
It should be SOP to begin an article like this with the statement – “In any conflict with Israel it is Hamas’ practice to initiate the conflict by firing on Israel from civilian areas – this is standard practice.”
Following should be a brief description of their activities on October 7, 2023, and THEN should be the article.
Israel is very much a secular state, unguided by biblical principles and teachings. As such it behaves, like any other power driven “end justifies the means” state. And it is immensely aided by an American media which refuses to recognize this fact.