“Everywhere, but especially in the few shelters that there are, the noises of the bombings, the confinement, the lack of everything, make daily life difficult. Many have lost loved ones, there are thousands of dead and thousands and thousands of injured, many have lost their homes, businesses, everything,” Father Romanelli, missionary priest of the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE) lamented. He is the only Catholic parish priest in Gaza assured this October 18 that “the Gaza Strip with its 2,300,000 inhabitants continues to be bombed night and day. There is no safe place to be or anywhere to go.”
Father Romanelli was passing through Bethlehem, in the West Bank, when the Hamas attack against Israel occurred, and this country declared “war.” Because of the conflict, he has not been able to return to Gaza. He says that “it is urgent to ask, beg, intercede for a ceasefire to be carried out.”
In his message, the priest offered calm by affirming that the entire Christian community is fine, taking refuge in the parish: “At Jesus’s home, [in Argentina, “the house of Jesus”] as they like to repeat.”
“Let us continue to pray a lot for them and for all the inhabitants of Gaza, Muslims and Christians, who these days live the life of displaced people and refugees,” he encouraged.
“Both Father Iusuf Asaad, IVE, parochial vicar, as well as the Sisters Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará, María del Pilar Llerena and María del Socorro Llerena, as well as the nuns of the Rosary of Jerusalem and the Sisters of Mother Teresa together “All disabled children, like all families, are fine,” Father Romanelli insisted.
Furthermore, he assured that the collaboration with the people of the neighborhood “is good and constant, as it usually is in Gaza,” where Christians and Muslims live together daily.
“People throughout the Gaza Strip are desperate and looking for whatever place seems safest. Everything is overwhelming. Many people wander the streets with their children and very few things on their shoulders looking for protection. War destroys everything. Let us ask for its end,” he reiterated.
Finally, the priest thanked on behalf of the Christian community for the large number of prayers, messages, calls, and requests for interviews, although he acknowledged that it is “impossible” to respond to most of them.
“We beg you to continue praying so that the Lord makes this chalice of pain cease by virtue of the strength and goodness of his saving Passion,” he concluded.
(Adapted from ACI Prensa)