Every Night, Pope Called a Small Church in Gaza

Hours after the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023, the only Catholic church in Gaza received a call from Rome. It was the first of what became nightly discussions between the parishioners of Holy Family Church and Pope Francis, Reuters reports. The pope "always healed our wounds and asked us to be strong," said Suheil Abu Dawoud, 19. "He was always praying for us." Francis would make sure to speak to everyone in the room, not just the priest, another parishioner said. When Pope Francis died Monday, "we lost a man who fought every day in every direction to protect this small herd of his," said George Antone.

The calls to the Palestinian Catholics, which became part of the pope's daily schedule, sometimes took hours to go through, per the Washington Post. "But he never gave up until he reached us and delivered his message," said the Rev. Gabriel Romanelli. Palestinian, Lebanese, and Syrian Christians—Catholic and Orthodox—said they found the pope's consistent engagement with the Middle East a source of solace. The pope's final call to Holy Family was on Saturday. "He asked for our prayers, gave us his blessing and thanked us for our commitment to peace," Romanelli said. When Dawoud heard the pope had died, he said he was deeply saddened, per the AP. "He was our biggest supporter after God," Dawoud said. (More pope francis stories.)