The Catholic bishops of the Holy Land have called for Tuesday October 17 to be set aside for fasting, abstinence, and prayer for peace in the region.
In an open letter, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, said: “On behalf of all the Ordinaries of the Holy Land, I invite all parishes and religious communities to a day of fasting and prayer for peace and reconciliation.
“Let us organise prayer times with Eucharistic adoration and with the recitation of the rosary to our Blessed Virgin Mary.”
The request comes as the death toll in mounts daily following the invasion of Israel by Hamas terrorists on Saturday and the slaughter of more than a thousand Jewish civilians, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/12/photo-baby-dead-hamas-israel-palestine-blinken/"><strong><em>including dozens of babies, some of whom were reported decapitated.</em></strong></a>
The atrocity is the single worst committed against the Jewish people since the Nazi Holocaust of the Second World War.
Cardinal Pizzaballa expressed deep concern over the swiftly escalating violence and inevitable large-scale Israeli reprisals, with 300,000 troops massing on the Gaza border for an imminent land offensive.
“The hatred, which we have unfortunately already been experiencing for too long, will increase even more,” he said.
“The pain and dismay at what is happening is great. Once again we find ourselves in the midst of a political and military crisis.”
Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, intends to purge the terrorist threat from Gaza, declaring “every Hamas member is a dead man”.
A colonel from the Israel Defence Forces said the mission was to ensure the terror group would no longer “have any military capabilities by which they can threaten or kill Israeli civilians”.
The United States’ Conference of Catholic Bishops has echoed Cardinal Pizzaballa’s request, and invited American Catholics to also pray for a swift resolution to the crisis.
In an interview with Vatican News, Cardinal Pizzaballa said he returned to Israel via Jordan from the Consistory of Cardinals, where he received his red hat from Pope Francis, to find a “frightened country” which was disfigured by “brutality”.
He said that although some Christian families in Gaza have lost their homes in air raids for now “they are safe”.
Cardinal Pizzaballa said: “They are all gathered in the premises of the parish and our school, in the assumption that these are not targeted.
“Of course, they are under great strain. They have enough food for some time, but if the siege situation were to continue, it would be a problem.
“For the time being, we are happy to know that they are all okay and are gathered in the parish premises.”
Describing himself as an “easy prophet”, the cardinal said an eruption of violence was predictable <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/this-war-was-foreseeable-unrest-has-been-brewing-in-the-holy-land-for-months/"><strong><em>because tensions in the region had been building all year.</em></strong></a>
“The escalation of the clash was there for all to see,” he said, adding: “But an explosion of such violence, scale and brutality no one had foreseen.
“This, however, puts on the table an issue that had been shelved: the Palestinian question, which perhaps some people thought had been archived.
“As long as the Palestinian issue, the freedom, dignity and future of the Palestinians are not taken into account in the ways that are necessary today, prospects for peace between Israel and Palestine will be increasingly difficult.”
He added: “It is clear that we are not in a military operation, but in a declared war. And I fear it will be a very long war.
“It is clear that we have suddenly entered a new phase in the life of this country and in the relations between Israel and Palestine.
“The international community must start looking again at the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian issue with more attention than it has shown so far.
“It must work hard to calm the situation, to bring the parties to reasonableness through mediations that are not necessarily public, because public ones will never work.
“We need support, to condemn all forms of violence, to isolate the violent, and to work relentlessly for a ceasefire. Because as long as weapons speak, it will not be possible to hear other voices.”
<em>(Photo: © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk)</em>
