The Voice of the suffering in Middle East

As Christmas approaches, the priest of the only Catholic parish in Gaza, Fr. Gabriel Romanelli, tells Aid to the Church in Need that his community is attempting to keep the “flame of hope” alive, and thanks benefactors for the material and spiritual support they provide to the Holy Land. “Our situation is better than a month and a half ago, when the ceasefire began, but this does not mean that things are well. They remain very serious, very delicate,” says ...

The Catholic parish in Gaza prepares for Christmas during an unstable ceasefire. From the heart of the devastated city, the pastor describes a disastrous sanitary situation and a daily routine marked by a scarcity of means for rebuilding. Christmas is drawing near in the land of Christ’s birth, but preparations are taking place in an atmosphere of disquiet. “The world should know that there are over 2 million people here who have nothing and need everything,” warns Fr. Gabriel Romanelli, ...

Lebanon is still recovering from years of conflict and economic turmoil. The Pope’s visit is a sign that the local Church is not forgotten and highlights the country’s unique role in the region. Pope Leo XIV began his first foreign apostolic journey today, November 27, touching down in the capital of Turkey, with plans to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. While Leo’s visits to the key sites of Iznik (Nicaea) and Istanbul highlight ecumenical and ...

With unemployment disproportionately affecting the Christian community, and as a gesture during the Jubilee of Hope, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem (LPJ) decided to cancel student debt in all its schools. Even though Christians are the smallest of the three major faith groups present in the Holy Land, after Jews and Muslims, the Catholic Church runs the largest network of schools in the region. More crucially, though, Catholic schools are unique in the composition of their student bodies and in ...

The end of Christianity in Syria would be a great loss, because “the Church stands as a reminder to every one of the ethics of justice and human dignity as a supreme value,” says Archbishop Jacques Mourad.  The Church in Syria is “dying,” a Syriac Catholic bishop warned recently, during a presentation in Rome. Archbishop Jacques Mourad of Homs, Hama, and al-Nabek said the Church in Syria faces an unbearable and unsustainable political and legal situation, with Christians leaving the ...

For the first time since the war began, the faithful of Holy Family Parish in Gaza gathered on Sunday in silence — no bombs, no sirens, only prayer. Fr. Gabriel Romanelli, an Argentine-born missionary and parish priest of the Holy Family Church, called on his faithful to “forgive all those who have failed and ask forgiveness for our own shortcomings,” as he led a Mass filled with hope and thanksgiving. “The long-awaited day has come to begin the implementation of ...