“We are in the Lord’s hands, and we trust that, with the help of many good people around the world, this will stop.” 

These are the words of Fr. Gabriel Romanelli, the parish priest of the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza. They were shared in a recent interview with Vatican News. Everyone gathered at the only Catholic parish in Gaza “are here for Jesus Christ, to serve Him in the Eucharist, and we serve Him in the person of the poor and the sick, of those who suffer,” said the Argentinian-born priest.

Fr. Gabriel and those who serve with him could take care for their own safety and leave the parish. It is in a part of Gaza City under a general evacuation order (the parish itself has not been given a specific order). Instead, they have chosen not to abandon Jesus, who lives with the people taking shelter in the parish compound that do not have the choice to leave. 

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The emergency committee of the parish began their August 27th statement announcing their intent to stay with a Biblical verse: “And so, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and unmovable, abounding always in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not useless in the Lord” (1 Cor 15:58).

I follow Fr. Gabriel on Instagram @gabrielromanellisivori. 

It is people like him that we should be filling our social media feeds with as followers of Christ. Another recent story that featured regularly in my algorithm was that of Cardinal Zuppi, president of the Italian Bishops conference. At a prayer vigil on August 14th, he read out a 469-page document over the course of 7 hours. This document consisted only of the names of children killed in the conflict since October 7th 2023. 16 Israeli children and 12,211 Palestinian ones. Such are the forms of prayer needed that call out to God for the conversion of hearts. 

As the Bishops of Canada said in their statement of August 27th, “Praying and fasting for peace in the Holy Land is both urgent and necessary at this time; it is something to which all the Catholic faithful in Canada should feel called to do, prompted by the loss of life on all sides and knowing that God desires peace.”  

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The call to prayer and fasting is one that I have been feeling pulled to more strongly as the famine continues. It was particularly hard for me to watch a recent report on CBC published on September 4th that told the story of 17-year-old Ahmed Ali al-Batniji under the headline, “Before he died, this Gaza teen described what it was like to starve.” 

Ahmed has celiac disease and so the lack of food affected him more than others. He is the face of the truth that in such inhumane conditions, it is the weakest and most vulnerable who die first. 

“Every day, I'm in pain — and it gets worse by the day,” he told the freelance reporter on August 20th. A week later Ahmed succumbed and was welcomed into the arms of the Lord. It is not hard to fast when contemplating such suffering as it makes me lose my own appetite.

In addition to prayer and fasting, supporting the Church and its ministries, as we do through Caritas Jerusalem, serves to counter the feelings of helplessness that I feel when I see the suffering of so many of God’s Children. 

Many wish to avert our eyes from what is happening in Palestine, for fear of being accused of antisemitism. Many wish to justify it by pointing to the evils done by terrorists like Hamas. The Church, through people like Father Gabriel, makes it impossible for us to do so. 

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Another strong voice that we cannot ignore is that of the Latin Patriarch, Cardinal Pizzaballa. As the invasion of Gaza City began, he and the Greek Orthodox Patriarch issued a joint statement in which they said, “It is time to end this spiral of violence, to put an end to war and to prioritize the common good of the people. There has been enough devastation, in the territories and in people’s lives. There is no reason to justify keeping civilians as prisoners and hostages in dramatic conditions. It is now time for the healing of the long-suffering families on all sides.”

This is at least the third column in which I have lamented the loss of innocent lives and the gross imbalance of suffering in this terrible conflict. How long O’Lord? How Long?