CNA Staff, Apr 9, 2025 /
17:11 pm
The pastor of the only Catholic parish in Gaza is urging world leaders to seek peace, saying that Gaza has “become a cage” amid the ongoing war there.
Father Gabriel Romanelli is the pastor of Holy Family Parish in Gaza, which has become a refuge for the Christian minority in war-torn Gaza.
The parish complex was converted into an improvised shelter at the beginning of the war between the terrorist group Hamas and Israel, which began nearly a year and a half ago when Hamas launched an invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 Israeli men, women, and children and taking 251 hostages.
Fifty-nine of the hostages are still in captivity, 35 of whom Israel believes are dead.
Pope Francis has made frequent calls to the Catholic parish in Gaza since Oct. 9, 2023, even maintaining the calls while in critical condition in the hospital.
Romanelli said the parish was doing “well” but urged world leaders to seek peace in a Wednesday interview with Vatican News.
Romanelli thanked the pope for his most recent call, saying the people “were very happy to hear he was calling.”
The pope “called, greeted us, asked how we were doing, how the people were,” Romanelli told Vatican News.
The parish is a makeshift home to 500 people, mostly Orthodox, Protestant, and Catholic Christians but also some Muslim children and their families. The pastor said those in the shelter are “OK for now” but that supplies are thin.
He thanked the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, for his “constant help.”
“Together with our 500 refugees and our Muslim neighbors from the Zeitoun neighborhood, we are OK for now,” he said.
But he noted that “everything is starting to run out.”
“Gaza is a prison — it’s become a cage, a giant cage,” Romanelli said.
“We help everyone, Christians and non-Christians alike,” Romanelli said. “We try to truly be instruments of peace for all.”
Romanelli highlighted the importance of peace, saying that it is essential to “convince everyone, all world leaders, that peace is possible.”
“As long as this armed conflict continues no problem will truly be resolved,” Romanelli said.
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He added that it was important to “persuade in such a way that this war ends with conditions that matter to the people,” for “both Palestinians and Israelis.”
Kate Quiñones is a staff writer for Catholic News Agency and a fellow of the College Fix. She has been published by the Wall Street Journal, the Denver Catholic Register, and CatholicVote, and she graduated from Hillsdale College. She lives in Colorado with her husband.
