Pope Francis: Global Community’s Inability to Stop War is Shameful
Pope Francis has deemed the global community’s inability to stop the war between Israel and Hamas as shameful.
It has been a year since Hamas’s attack on Israel and the start of the war between the two countries, a conflict that has resulted in massacres, thousands of injuries, and the captivity of many civilians, including children and adults.
Pope Francis, who has repeatedly called for ceasefire through published messages and has frequently appealed to the global community to intervene and end the war, on the occasion of the first anniversary of the war between Israel and Hamas, issued a letter addressed to Catholics in the region. In this letter, he referred to major powers’ failure to achieve a ceasefire and their inability to stop the war as “a shameful defeat,” stating: “One year ago, the spark of war and hatred was ignited and continues to explode in a spiral of violence.
It seems that few people pay attention to what is most needed and desirable—dialogue and peace. Violence never brings peace in its wake; history has proven this, yet it appears that years of conflict have taught us nothing.”
Pope Francis, the leader of Catholics worldwide, directly addressed the Catholics of Gaza in the said letter: “I am with you, the people of Gaza, who have long been caught in conflict and hardship. You are in my daily thoughts and prayers. I am with you who have been forced to abandon your homes, to leave school and work to seek shelter from bombardment. I am with you who are afraid to look at the sky for fear of the rain of fire falling upon you.”
It is worth noting that Pope Francis, in addition to speaking with greater clarity in recent weeks about the war between Hamas and Israel, declared Monday, October 7, as a day of fasting and prayer for peace for Catholics around the world.
