His involvement with the Palestinians regularly brought Pope Francis into conflict with Israel

Every evening, if his health allowed it, Pope Franciscus called the church of the Holy Family in recent months, the only Catholic parish in Gaza. He usually asked simple questions: how their day had been, or what they had eaten. This is a parish that represents about two hundred of the 1.4 billion Catholics in the world. The Pope’s message was clear: his sympathy was unconditionally with the population of Gaza besieged by Israel.

A pope has some secular power, as leader of the independent mini -state Vatican City, which with its eight hundred inhabitants has a huge diplomatic device. But his moral power, as leader of a religious community with more than 1.4 billion members, is many times greater. Pope Francis has unambiguously used that influence for the Palestinians. One day before he died, the Holy Father made a call during the Easter mass to end the Gaza War.

The two hundred members of the Catholic parish in Gaza, one of the three Christian communities in the Palestinian coastal strip, form a negligible minority on a population of 2.3 million people, of whom the vast majority are Muslim. Nevertheless, the influence of the parish extends: the church runs, among other things, schools and clinics, where the Muslim population of Gaza is also welcome.

During this Gaza war, the church building also acts as a hiding place for about five hundred people, Christians and Muslims, with special attention to the disabled. That does not stop Israel from attacking: in July last year, four displaced persons died in an Israeli air raid at the Holy Family School in Gaza City. The Greek Orthodox Church of St. Porphyrius in Gaza City was also bombed by Israel.

Direct offspring

Francis’s involvement with the Palestinians expressed himself early during his pontificate, in 2015, when the Vatican Palestine recognized as a state. The Palestinian Christians occupy a special position within Christianity: they consider themselves the direct descendants of the very first Christians, on the birthplace of their faith. In the Christian district of the old city in East Jerusalem, the Holy Grafkerk, with Golgotha, contains, where Jesus, according to the Bible, was crucified. Well -known Palestinian Christians are literary scientist Edward Said, the journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and politician Hanan Ashrawi, murdered by Israel.

Relatively speaking, the Christians form a large part of the Palestinians who were driven out by Israel in 1948. They were more than 10 percent of the Palestinian population for the establishment of Israel, nowadays their share has shrunk to 2 percent. Many more Palestinian Christians live in Chile than on the West Bank occupied by Israel.

His expressions about Gaza regularly brought Francis into conflict with Israel. He said at the end of 2024 that the international community should consider whether the Israeli military campaign is on a genocide. Francis also strongly turned away from the way Israel ways war. « We cannot accept in any way that citizens are bombed, that children freeze death because hospitals have been destroyed, » he said in 2024, for example.

Israel, among other things, submitted a formal complaint when a Vatican officer qualified the Gaza War as a « slaughter ». Israel also criticized Francis when he had labeled the Israeli warfare as « terrorism » without mentioning the attack of Hamas of 7 October 2023.

Francis has arranged for the right to exist of Israel; He mentioned that the right of existence was anti -Semitic. He also worked for Holocaust survivors, including a visit to Auschwitz.

National Park

There is a chance that Francis will be succeeded by someone he has appointed himself and who is in his tradition. It is about his follower Pierbattista Pizza Balla, a clergyman from Bergamo, Northern Italian since 2020, has been the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. He applies if papabile -A candidate pause. Since the outbreak of the Gaza War, Pizzaballa has also committed itself to the Christian community in Gaza.

The Italian is known as a champion of the inter -religious dialogue between Christians, Muslims and Jews, who all have a strong bond with Jerusalem. Yet he does not hesitate to criticize Israel, especially where it concerns the treatment of Muslims and Christians. For example, he complained at the end of 2023 NRC over the expansion of the « historical-cultural Jewish narrative », at the expense of others: For example, the Mount of Olives, which is also important for Christians, is housed in a national park that is run by Jewish settlers.