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Pope highlights civilian casualties in a world ‘increasingly lacerated’ by conflict

January 08, 2024

ROME – After a year that saw thousands of civilians killed in wars and violent conflicts, Pope Francis told diplomats accredited to the Holy See that international war crimes must be recognised and prevented. In his 8 January address, the Pope noted that as the year 2024 opens the world is “increasingly lacerated” by conflict,

Pope offers usual Christmas message of hope while lamenting ‘the little Jesuses of today’ lost to war, migration and abortion

December 28, 2023

At the end of a year marked by the outbreak of fresh wars and by various personal health crises, Pope Francis at Christmas offered a message of hope, saying Jesus’s birth brings light to a dark world and his littleness shows the path of salvation, through humility and love. Though he also took to task

Bethlehem Dispatch: A muted Christmas ‘bereft its usual festive splendour’

December 27, 2023

Bethlehem’s main square is bereft its usual festive splendour and twinkling red, green and white lights. Usually bustling this time of year with thousands of global visitors and with Christians visiting from across the Holy Land—including Gaza—the square is now desolate. There are no tourists or pilgrims. The abrupt halting of access for Christians from

Christmas Message of the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem

December 21, 2023

The following Christmas Message was released 21 December 2023 by the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem, in which they highlight the similarities between the current strife in the Holy Land and the events occurring more than two thousand years ago when Jesus was born: Christmas Message of the Patriarchs and Heads of

The plight of Christians in the Holy Land this Christmas

December 17, 2023

This editorial from the Catholic Herald reflects on the attack on Christians in Gaza yesterday. There is one part of the Church where the celebrations for Christmas have already been put on hold, and that is the Holy Land, where Church leaders encouraged Christians to curb the usual festivities and decorations out of respect for

Christian minority killed and dying due to Gaza conflict

December 12, 2023

The Israel-Hamas conflict has claimed the lives of 22 people from among the roughly 1,000 Christians living in Gaza. An airstrike killed 17 Christians sheltering in the Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius on 19 October, and five others have died from lack of medical care. On 12 December an unexploded rocket was discovered on the boundaries of

Gaza’s only Catholic church damaged by shrapnel

December 11, 2023

The sole Catholic church in Gaza was damaged over the weekend as a result of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem confirmed that shrapnel from Israeli military strikes on buildings in the vicinity of the Holy Family Church had destroyed water tanks and solar panels on the roof of

Christian homes and a Catholic school among buildings destroyed in Gaza

November 16, 2023

MORE than 50 Christian family homes and a Catholic school have been destroyed, and other Christian buildings have been badly damaged by airstrikes in Gaza, according to a charity’s project partner. One of the buildings destroyed has been the Rosary Sisters School, which had 1,250 students, both Christian and Muslim, and was one of the