A moment of great participation in the pain and suffering from those who live the drama of the conflict in the Holy Land: on the morning of 15 November, the Italian bishops, gathered in extraordinary General Assembly in Assisi, listened to the testimony of Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, connected during the first session of the day dedicated to prayer for peace. The connection lasted more than 20 minutes.
The Drama of Gaza
The Cardinal presented the “dramatic current situation”: “There are – he explained – 1,400 Israeli victims of the attack of 7 October, more than 11,000 confirmed dead in Gaza, mostly civilians, of whom at least 4,000 are minors. There are some 100,000 displaced persons in Israel and at least one million in Gaza.
The Christians present in Gaza, where “the infrastructure is completely destroyed”, are “less than a thousand, housed in an Orthodox centre and in a Catholic parish in the north, which is under continuous bombardment and at the centre of the military operations”, Cardinal Pizzaballa said.
“We are also providing accommodation – he added – to some 3,000 Muslims, housed in the premises of a school. Great – he continued – is the concern also for the Christians in Bethlehem and the surrounding area and for those dispersed in the West Bank”.
Prayers for the innocent
While thanking the Italian Church for its concrete and spiritual closeness, the Cardinal expressed his hope that a solution would soon be found that would guarantee peace and security for all. Let us pray,” he concluded, “for all the innocent victims. The suffering of the innocent before God has a precious and redemptive value, because it is united to the redemptive suffering of Christ. May their suffering bring peace ever closer and not contribute to generating more hatred”.
The closeness of the Church in Italy
For his part, the President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, on behalf of the Italian bishops, renewed the closeness of the Churches in Italy, assuring a special remembrance in the prayer for peace that will take place this afternoon. The invocation for peace will in fact be the main theme of the second part of the day: at 5.45 p.m., the Italian Bishops will gather in the Basilica of Santa Chiara to pray Vespers.
Then, in procession, they will go to the Lower Church of the Basilica of St. Francis for the celebration of Mass and prayer at the tomb of the Saint. Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino, Archbishop of Assisi – Nocera Umbra – Gualdo Tadino and Archbishop of Foligno, will preside at Vespers and the procession, while Cardinal Zuppi will preside at the Eucharistic celebration.
The bishops in prayer
“The hearts of all of us – the bishops prayed – are filled with sorrow for the wars that lacerate our time. This evening, uniting ourselves to the longing for peace that arises from every corner of the earth, we prepare to pause in prayer at the tomb of St. Francis, a man of reconciliation and fraternity. Entrusting ourselves to his intercession, we implore God the Father, who in Christ Jesus pacified heaven and earth, to banish the horrors of violence and grant us days of peace”.
