In an interview with Italy's Corriere della Sera, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, addressed the Israeli strike on the Catholic Church of the Holy Family in Gaza — an attack that wounded several, killed three, and shook a community already shattered by war.
“They hit us today,” he said, “but people are dying by the dozens every day. This absurd war must stop.”
The cardinal’s voice, an unwavering presence in the chaos of the conflict, trembled with grief but held firm in its call for peace. For years now, the Holy Family parish had been a refuge for civilians — around 500 people seeking shelter, food, and water amidst destruction. But on that day, a tank fired on the church compound. According to Cardinal Pizzaballa, “They say it was a mistake. But here, no one believes that.”
The Israel Defense Forces had this to say on X.
Thursday's shelling was not an isolated incident. Over a year ago, two women were shot dead by a sniper in the same courtyard. Yet this is the first time the church itself — Gaza’s only Catholic parish — was directly targeted.
“It seems they struck from the ground,” the cardinal clarified, suggesting a level of precision that makes accidental fire difficult to believe. Days before, an Israeli evacuation order had been issued for the area, but Pizzaballa said it never included the church specifically.
“We are not a target,” he insisted. “We never made distinctions among the civilians we helped. Everyone knows the Church’s humanitarian mission.”
'We are not leaving'
Amid rising violence in recent days against Christians in the West Bank, the attack raises disturbing questions. Is the Christian presence in Gaza being deliberately pressured to vanish?
“I don’t like speculation,” the cardinal said simply. “But the facts speak for themselves. We will continue to serve the people. We are not leaving. No matter what happens.”
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has deepened drastically, he noted, not only because of bombardments but because of hunger, collapsed infrastructure, and a health system in ruins. “There’s little water. Few hospitals. So much hunger.”
When asked what the international community should do, the cardinal was blunt: “Move beyond declarations. This slow drip of death is no longer morally or humanly sustainable.”
He also confirmed he had informed Pope Leo XIV of the attack, and expressed hope — but not naïveté — about peace:
“Wars are easy to begin, hard to end. Only a political decision can stop this. Military solutions won’t bring peace. Leaders must raise their voices.”
Faith, he said, is his anchor. “I must be optimistic. I am a man of faith. I have hope.”
In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, peace is defined not simply as the absence of war, but as “the tranquility of order” (CCC 2304) — a condition that seems painfully out of reach today in Gaza.
Yet through voices like Cardinal Pizzaballa’s, the moral call to protect life and uphold human dignity resounds in a land where silence has too often taken its place.
