Pope Francis died today at the age of 88 following prolonged disease. Yesterday, in his Sunday of Easter speech on the Place de Saint-Pierre in the city of the Vatican, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church chose to express his “proximity to the sufferings of Christians in Palestine and Israel, and to all Israelis and to the Palestinian people”.
He continued by declaring that he “thought (ING) of the people of Gaza, and of his Christian community in particular, where the terrible conflict continues to cause death and destruction and to create a dramatic and deplorable humanitarian situation” – an attenuated reference, of course, to genocides of Israel during Gaza in the Gaza Strip.
By concluding the Pope’s reflections on this particular “terrible conflict”, an “call to war parties: call a ceasefire, release the hostages and come with the help of a hungry people who aspire to a future of peace!”
Admittedly, Pope Francis has chosen to deploy a language which does not adequately reflect the horrors currently unleashed on Gaza. On the one hand, a genocide is not a “conflict”; Israeli genocidaires and Palestinian victims of the genocide are not equal “parts at war”.
That said, the Pope deserves praise for having used what would be his last platform to ask for a cease-fire in Gaza-at a time when the world appears too happy to allow the mass slaughter of the Palestinians to continue indefinitely.
Although he has not identified who is precisely to blame for the fact that there are now “hungry people” who need help, it is naturally a reference to the decision of Israel in early March to cut all humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip – a decision of famine and a war crime.
The call of Pope Francis to a ceasefire yesterday came a month after the final annihilation by Israel of the existing ceasefire which ostensibly took effect in January, that the Israeli army had already taken the opportunity to rape in each turn.
Between the end of the ceasefire by Israel on March 18 and April 9, the United Nations found that, in at least 36 Israeli air strikes distinct on Gaza, women and children were the only deaths.
As much as hungry people could “aspire to a future of peace”, it is therefore difficult to aspire to any future when you are actively exterminated by an army which benefits from the full bipartisan support of the reigning global superpower, the United States of America.
By the way, the last day of Pope Francis on Earth also included a brief meeting with the second superpower commander: the US vice-president JD Vance. The meeting came after the head of the Catholic Church has repeatedly criticized the administration of US President Donald Trump and his manic expulsion diets. In a February address, he noted that his immigration policies provoked a “major crisis” which “damages the dignity of men and women”.
Pope Francis also wink at the fate of people in movement in his Easter address: “How much contempt is sometimes stirred towards vulnerable, marginalized and migrants!”
He then reiterated his desire “to renew our hope that peace is possible”.
Unfortunately, however, contempt and dehumanization are pillars of a desperate global system – led by the United States – which prioritizes the tyranny of elite and the benefit of any semblance of human decency. Whether it is the arms industry that makes the Israel genocide bank in Gaza or the United States that makes life in hell for undocumented people on the work of the country’s economy, institutionalized contempt is good for business.
This Easter week, “the hope that peace is possible” was entirely out of the question for Palestinian Christians in Gaza, the West Bank occupied by Israeli and Jerusalem – the very place that Jesus was crucified, according to the Bible.
In the Gaza Strip, Christians gathered in fear on Sunday of Easter at the church of Gaza City of Saint Porphyrius, which was bombed in October 2023 shortly after the start of the genocide. The attack killed at least 18 displaced Palestinians who were there, including Christians.
In the West Bank and Jerusalem, Israeli officials have thwarted access to the Holy Sites for many members of the Christian community, which has undergone increasing attacks of Jewish settlers and other forms of persecution supported by the State.
About 6,000 Palestinians from the West Bank only received Israel permits to attend Easter services this year at the Holy Spulcher church in occupied East Jerusalem, which was predictably militarized for the occasion.
As Tel Aviv Tribune noted, “even the Vatican representative in Palestine was denied entry into the church”.
A day later, the terrestrial representative of the Roman Catholic Church himself went to other kingdoms. Among his separation calls appealed to a ceasefire in Gaza. Will anyone listen?
The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.