- Feb 5, 2002
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What is the appropriate Catholic response to the murderous military strikes that Hamas, the militant Islamist group that governs the Palestinian-controlled territory of Gaza, unleashed against unsuspecting people in Israel?
This is the question that Pope Francis and other Church leaders in the Holy Land, the U.S. and elsewhere in the world are now grappling to address in the wake of the horrific surprise attack.
One takeaway so far: The Church hasn’t spoken with one voice.
On the morning of the Oct. 7 Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, an estimated 1,000 heavily armed Hamas fighters breached the barriers that wall off Gaza from southern Israel. Rampaging through the surrounding region, they slaughtered more than 1,300 people in Israel, including numerous defenseless women and children, and wounded thousands of others before Israeli soldiers were able to mobilize to repel the attacks. More than 100 people were abducted to Gaza as hostages by the retreating militants.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded Oct. 8 with a declaration of war and subsequently formed a unity government with the leading opposition party that vowed to “crush” the Hamas regime.
The Holy Father made his initial public remarks about the atrocities at the end of his Sunday Angelus address on Oct. 8.
Continued below.
This is the question that Pope Francis and other Church leaders in the Holy Land, the U.S. and elsewhere in the world are now grappling to address in the wake of the horrific surprise attack.
One takeaway so far: The Church hasn’t spoken with one voice.
On the morning of the Oct. 7 Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, an estimated 1,000 heavily armed Hamas fighters breached the barriers that wall off Gaza from southern Israel. Rampaging through the surrounding region, they slaughtered more than 1,300 people in Israel, including numerous defenseless women and children, and wounded thousands of others before Israeli soldiers were able to mobilize to repel the attacks. More than 100 people were abducted to Gaza as hostages by the retreating militants.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded Oct. 8 with a declaration of war and subsequently formed a unity government with the leading opposition party that vowed to “crush” the Hamas regime.
The Holy Father made his initial public remarks about the atrocities at the end of his Sunday Angelus address on Oct. 8.
Continued below.
