During Sunday's Angelus and before thousands of people, Pope Francis renewed his appeal for peace in the Middle East.
POPE FRANCIS
I am very concerned, saddened. I pray and I am close to all those who are suffering: the hostages, the wounded, the victims and their families. I think of the grave humanitarian situation in Gaza.
I renew my call for spaces to be opened, for humanitarian aid to continue to arrive and for the hostages to be freed.
This week in Rome, Pope Francis has called for a day of fasting, penance and prayer to be observed on Friday the 27th.
POPE FRANCIS
War, any war in the world—I am also thinking of the martyred Ukraine—is a defeat. War is always a defeat. It is a destruction of human fraternity. Brothers, stop! Stop!
The Pope also mourned the destruction of the Anglican hospital and the Orthodox Church where several Christian Palestinians died.
JRB
TR: KG