“You are not alone”
: Pope Francis expressed his solidarity with the Catholics of the Holy Land on Wednesday in the run-up to Easter, shortly after meeting two Israeli and Palestinian peace activists bereaved by the conflict.
“I am close to all of you, in your different rites, (...) in particular to those who, in this difficult moment, suffer most painfully from the absurd drama of war,”
wrote the Argentine pope in a published letter by the Vatican.
Four days before Easter, which commemorates the death and resurrection of Christ among Catholics, Jorge Bergoglio, 87 years old and who visited the Holy Land in 2014, expressed his support for
“children who are denied access to 'future'
,
'those who cry and suffer'
,
'those who experience anguish and dismay'
.
Working for dialogue
“Brothers, sisters, I want to tell you: you are not alone and we will not leave you alone
,” assured the Argentine Jesuit, who continues to call for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages since the Hamas attack on October 7 and the start of Israeli bombardments on the Gaza Strip.
The Gaza Strip, where the majority of its 2.4 million inhabitants are Muslim, has around a thousand Christians, most of them Orthodox, while the number of Catholics in Israel and the Palestinian Territories is estimated at around 200,000 faithful.
On Wednesday morning, the Pope also expressed his closeness to two fathers and peace activists, an Israeli and a Palestinian, who both lost their daughters in the conflict.
“We can live in peace without killing each other, but without occupation, without oppression, equals,”
Bassam Aramin, a native of Jericho in the West Bank, whose 10-year-old daughter was killed outside her school by an Israeli soldier in 2007.
His friend Rami Elhanan, who lost his teenage daughter in a Hamas suicide bombing in Jerusalem in 1997, said the pope had been
“deeply touched”
by their actions for peace through an association working for dialogue between Palestinians. and Israelis.
“I think the pope's support resonates throughout the world, he understands that this bloodbath is not going anywhere, that the right of self-defense does not give the right to take revenge
,” Elhanan said.