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23-12-2024
VATICAN CITY/ ISTANBUL: Pope Francis on Saturday condemned the recent Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, expressing sorrow over the bombing of children in the Gaza Strip the previous day.
“Yesterday, children were bombed. This is not war. This is cruelty. I want to say this because it touches my heart,” he told members of the Roman Curia, the Vatican’s central administration.
He also lamented that Israeli airstrikes had prevented Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the highest representative of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, from entering Gaza.
Israel has killed more than 45,000 people, most of them women and children, in Gaza since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, and reduced the territory to rubble.
On Nov. 21, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its military campaign in the enclave.
The pontiff has also called for an investigation to determine if Israel’s attacks in Gaza constitute genocide, according to excerpts from an upcoming new book.
Pope Francis, who has just turned 88 and has been suffering from a heavy cold, will lead the regular Sunday Angelus prayer from inside his residence as a precaution, the Vatican said in a statement on Saturday.
The decision was taken in view of cold weather in Rome and the pope’s commitments in the coming Christmas week, it added.
Francis, who has been pope since 2013, had complained about the effects of his cold during an audience on Friday, but earlier on Saturday he was well enough to deliver his annual Christmas address to cardinals.
The pope will give the Angelus on Sunday from the chapel of the Vatican’s Santa Marta quarters where he lives, rather than addressing pilgrims from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square.
Francis has suffered spells of ill health in recent years. When he was 21, the then Jorge Bergoglio developed pleurisy and had part of one of his lungs removed in his native Argentina.
He has suffered from influenza and related problems a number of times since the start of 2023, cancelling a planned trip to the COP28 climate meeting in Dubai last year because of the effects of flu and lung inflammation.
He delivered the Angelus from Santa Marta last December as he recovered from that bout of flu.
The coming days are expected to be particularly intense because in addition to the regular Christmas services, the pope will also mark the start of the Holy Year or Jubilee on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24.
The pope is scheduled to open the bronze door of St. Peter’s Basilica, which symbolizes the doorway of salvation for Catholics and is normally sealed, for the start of the Jubilee.
Such Holy Years are normally held every 25 years and this one is expected to attract millions of additional visitors to the Vatican and Rome.
Pope Francis was admitted to a Rome hospital for an operation on his abdomen on Wednesday, the latest in a number of health problems for the 86-year-old pontiff.
Here are some of the medical issues Francis has had to overcome. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
