In Jerusalem, sisters comfort retirement home residents amid sounds of war
Sisters at Jerusalem’s Home Notre Dame des Douleurs offer comfort to residents amid the sounds of war. Sr. Rose Veplad, a 60‑year‑old German member of the Little Sisters of Jesus, and Sr. Claire‑Emmanuel Pontroué, the home’s assistant manager, are highlighted as key caregivers. Residents hear war noises but receive prayers, companionship, and a sense of hope from the sisters. Sr. Camille F. Herraiz Martinez, 80, expresses the need to live and give war its own meaning while hoping for peace.
5 months ago
The Sisters of Daughters of Our Lady of Sorrows continue to care for the 26 elderly residents of Home Notre Dame des Douleurs in East Jerusalem despite daily missile alerts and a six‑week U.S.–Israel‑Iran war. Their routine checks, prayers, and personal support provide both physical safety and emotional comfort amid ongoing conflict and limited resources. 1
Sisters awaken at red‑alert sirens and immediately visit every resident’s room, reassuring those frightened by explosions and explaining that the building is safe. 1
Even when residents cannot fully grasp the war, they hear the sounds and often respond with gratitude, saying “Alhamdulillah” for being alive. 1
Four sisters—Sr Claire‑Emmanuel Pontroué (assistant manager), Sr Camille Fermina Herraiz Martinez (superior), Sr Marie‑André Ata, and Sr Yvette Falanka—manage the home, providing spiritual guidance and practical care. 1
They view their work as serving Jesus directly, finding “fullness of life” in caring for the elderly, many of whom lack family support. 1
Residents such as 85‑year‑old Diana Safieh, who relies on an oxygen machine, express a lifelong familiarity with war and a belief that peace must come from negotiations, not fighting. 1
Long‑time resident Sr Rose Veplad, a Little Sister of Jesus who has lived in Israel for 60 years, says she places herself in God’s hands and sees war as “never good.” 1
The sisters hope the 10‑day cease‑fire between the U.S., Israel, and Iran will be extended and eventually lead to lasting peace. 1
A 36‑month EU rehabilitation project, implemented by CNEWA‑Pontifical Mission, is nearing completion and aims to double the home’s capacity and staff. 1*
How does the Catholic Church’s pastoral care respond to wartime suffering?
The Catholic Church’s pastoral care for wartime suffering is not limited to emergency relief. It aims at “motherly closeness” to people wounded by violence—physically, psychologically, and spiritually—while also insisting on the protection of the innocent, reconciliation, and the humanization of war’s effects through both spiritual ministry and moral witness.
A distinctive emphasis in the Church’s pastoral approach is that war produces spiritual wounds—especially in those who witnessed atrocities. Pope Francis explicitly asks how to treat these “spiritual wounds of soldiers who… have witnessed atrocious crimes,” and he says these people and their families need “special pastoral attention” and “the Church’s motherly closeness.”
That “pastoral attention” is concretely described as accompaniment by chaplains: their role is to “accompany and support them,” to be “a comforting and brotherly presence.”
The Church’s pastoral care also specifies particular means:
In Catholic terms, this addresses not only trauma as psychology, but trauma as a wound affecting the person’s relationship with God, conscience, guilt, despair, and hope—hence the repeated emphasis on grace through sacramental life.
Pope Francis underscores that chaplains must pray: “Ask yourselves as chaplains: how much time per day do I devote to prayer?… Chaplains must pray. Without prayer it is impossible…”
So, the Church’s response to wartime suffering includes a spiritually demanding ministry—not only social work, but sustained prayer and sacramental ministry as the heart of pastoral care.
John Paul II describes an established Christian tradition of pastoral care for military personnel. He also recalls Vatican II’s teaching: those in military service, “while they are performing this duty in the right manner,” contribute to peace because their service is oriented to “the security and freedom” of their peoples.
This means the Church does not treat soldiers as only “combatants,” but as persons whose moral and spiritual life can be supported—especially where war wounds conscience and family life.
The Church’s wartime pastoral response extends powerfully to displaced persons. A key instruction from the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants emphasizes that pastors must ensure an “incisive pastoral presence,” not only material aid.
It states that arranging pastoral care so that refugees receive:
is part of responding to Christ’s command to love one’s brethren.
The document also notes refugees often “often have nothing at all” and thus need “greater love, care, concern, and active solidarity from Christians and pastors who live side by side with them.”
The same text teaches that local and universal Church are committed not only to spiritual care but also “material, psychological and medical help.”
Crucially, it describes coordination through Church structures—bishops’ conferences and Catholic agencies—while insisting that providers have “special respect for the person of the refugees and for their rights, whatever their conditions of life or their religion may be.”
So, wartime suffering is met with a complete pastoral approach: spiritual care grounded in sacramental and scriptural nourishment, integrated with humanitarian and psychological assistance, and oriented to human dignity and rights.
The Church’s pastoral care is not silent about how war is conducted. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine explains that the principle of humanity includes an obligation to protect civilian populations from the effects of war. It cites a warning that the “minimum protection of the dignity of every person… is all too often violated” in the name of military or political demands.
This gives pastoral care a public moral dimension: defending the dignity of victims is part of the Church’s mission, not an optional extra.
The Compendium explicitly identifies refugees and displaced persons as a particular category of war victim and says the Church is close to them through both pastoral presence and material support, as well as through a commitment to defend their human dignity and reaffirm human rights.
Thus, the Church’s response to wartime suffering includes the defense of refugees’ dignity and rights as a component of pastoral solicitude.
After hostilities, pastoral care focuses on inner reconstruction. John Paul II, speaking to bishops in Bosnia-Herzegovina, says the post-conflict task is to “heal minds tried by suffering and… hardened by feelings of hatred and revenge,” a process requiring faith in Christ.
This is pastoral work aimed at the moral and spiritual roots of violence—resentment, revenge-logic, and dehumanization.
In the same address, he describes a “new culture” flowing from the Gospel that:
So reconciliation is not merely a ceasefire. It is presented as a cultural and moral transformation, made possible by the Gospel’s power.
Pastoral care also includes prophetic denunciation. John Paul II urges bishops to “raise a prophetic voice to denounce cases of violence, to unmask injustices,” while defending communities entrusted to them.
This means that the Church’s pastoral response does not only comfort victims; it also confronts the moral disorder that creates victimhood.
Pope Francis describes war as disfiguring relationships: it “disfigures the bonds between brothers and between nations,” and it also wounds those who witness atrocities. Soldiers can return with “real inner wounds” and war can leave “an indelible mark.”
That diagnosis shapes the pastoral method: since war wounds at multiple levels, pastoral care responds at multiple levels.
Francis also connects chaplaincy to international humanitarian law. He says humanitarian law aims to safeguard principles of humanity in a context that is “in itself dehumanizing,” and to protect those not participating in the conflict (civilian populations, healthcare workers, religious personnel, wounded, prisoners).
He further says humanitarian law seeks to ban weapons that cause brutal and pointless suffering and serious damage to natural and cultural environments—thus trying to “humanize the effects of armed conflicts.”
So pastoral care involves both spiritual ministry and ethical formation aimed at preventing violations and reducing suffering.
Even while addressing immediate suffering, the Church keeps a deeper horizon: Francis says Christians remain convinced “that the ultimate aim… is the abolition of war.” He calls for building bridges that unite, seeking openings for mediation and reconciliation, and never treating the other as “merely an enemy to destroy,” but as a person with intrinsic dignity.
This frames pastoral care as both healing the wounds of history and working toward peace as a moral and spiritual duty.
Benedict XV, writing in the midst of World War I, speaks of expanding charity in a time of universal suffering—“universal beneficence which springs from the love of others”—and describes the vast need for food, clothing, shelter, and care for “widows and orphans” and enfeebled children and young people.
While this is a general description of wartime suffering, it supports a clear pastoral implication found throughout the later sources: the Church’s charity seeks to reach victims as such—people crushed by war—regardless of where they stand.
Drawing these sources together, the Church’s pastoral care responds to wartime suffering through a set of linked commitments:
The Catholic Church’s pastoral care in wartime suffering is comprehensive and layered: it comforts and heals spiritual wounds through Word and sacrament, serves victims with dignity through coordinated humanitarian and pastoral action, defends the innocent by insisting on humanity and rights, and builds reconciliation by confronting hatred and injustice. All of it is carried out with an ultimate horizon of peace and—explicitly—an aim toward the abolition of war.