"Disbelief and horror," Michael La Civita, director of communications for the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, told OSV News, describing his reaction just hours after an Oct. 17 strike on al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza.
The facility, a humanitarian outreach of the Episcopal
"War does not solve any problems, it only sows death and destruction. It increases hatred, multiplies revenge. War erases the future," he said at the end of his general audience talk in St. Peter's Square Oct. 18.
"Our thoughts go to Palestine and
While Palestinian officials said the hospital was hit in an Israeli strike and had killed some 500 people, the Israel Defense Forces said intelligence showed Palestinian Islamic Jihad group was responsible for the "failed rocket launch" that struck the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.
"An
Pope Francis phoned Holy Family parish -- the only Catholic parish in Gaza -- the evening of Oct. 15, Vatican News reported. Sister Saleh said Father Asaad passed her the phone because he doesn't speak Italian as well as she does.
After Hamas