Catholic Patriarch Calls Day of Prayer and Fasting for Peace in the Holy Land

In response, Catholics from around the world have also pledged on social media to join in the fast for peace in the Holy Land in solidarity, which falls on the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch, the first-century bishop and martyr from Syria.

After Hamas’ unprecedented multi-front attack on Israel killed 1,200 people, the Israeli government vowed retaliation and launched airstrikes on the blockaded Gaza Strip, killing 900 people according to Gaza officials.

Some 130 Israeli hostages were taken by the militant Islamist group, who have threatened to kill one hostage every time that Israel’s military bombs civilian targets in Gaza without warning.

“The pain and dismay at what is happening is great. Once again we find ourselves in the midst of a political and military crisis. We have suddenly been catapulted into a sea of unprecedented violence,” Pizzaballa said.

“The hatred, which we have unfortunately already been experiencing for too long, will increase even more, and the ensuing spiral of violence will create more destruction. Everything seems to speak of death.”

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The cardinal, who arrived back in Jerusalem on the night of Oct. 10 after being in Italy for the consistory, said that he returned to find “a country that has changed a great deal and very quickly.”

“I fear it will be a very long war,” Pizzaballa said in an interview with Vatican News on Oct. 11, noting the possibility of an Israeli ground operation in Gaza.

He said that Christians in Gaza have taken shelter in the Catholic parish and school grounds in the hope that these buildings will not be targeted.

“As long as the Palestinian issue, the freedom, dignity, and future of the Palestinians are not taken into account in the ways that are necessary today, prospects for peace between Israel and Palestine will be increasingly difficult,” the cardinal said.

“The international community must start looking again at the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian issue with more attention than it has shown so far. And it must work hard to calm the situation, to bring the parties to reasonableness through mediations that are not necessarily public, because public ones will never work,” he added.

“We need support, to condemn all forms of violence, to isolate the violent, and to work relentlessly for a cease-fire. Because as long as weapons speak, it will not be possible to hear other voices.”

Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees.