Pope Leo prays for Gaza victims: ‘How long, O Lord?’
Pope Leo XIV sent condolences and prayers to the Holy Family parish community in Gaza after an Israeli airstrike killed five civilians, including two Greek Orthodox women. In a message to parish priest Fr. Gabriel Romanelli, the Pope mourned the victims, prayed for their families and thanked him for supporting the community. Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa condemned the loss of innocent lives and warned that living conditions for Palestinians remain dire, with winter worsening risks for displaced families. The Church in Gaza continues helping displaced people, while the reopening of the parish school has offered the community a sign of hope.
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Pope Leo XIV sent a message of condolence to Gaza’s Holy Family parish after an Israeli airstrike killed five civilians in Gaza City on October 3. He said he was praying for the victims, their families and the wider community, and asked, “How long, O Lord?” 1
The strike hit a residential building in the Rimal neighbourhood of western Gaza City. Two of those killed were Greek Orthodox women, Maysa Khader Ibrahim Abu Daoud and her daughter, Mary Hafez Michel Najjar; others were wounded, and medical sources at Al-Shifa Hospital said some were in serious condition. 1
The Israeli military said the strike targeted a Hamas command centre or leader. The women’s funeral was held at Saint Porphyrius Church in Gaza City, where Metropolitan Alexios, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchal Vicar, prayed for them.
Leo addressed his message to Father Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest of Holy Family Church. He expressed sorrow over the deaths, said he was praying for the victims and their families, and thanked Romanelli for accompanying the parish and others seeking to live in peace. 1
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, also offered condolences and condemned the loss of innocent lives. The Church in Gaza, led by Romanelli and the Missionaries of Charity, continues to assist displaced people, according to the Vatican News report. 1
Pizzaballa warned that humanitarian and everyday conditions remained difficult despite a reduction in the intensity of fighting. He said reconstruction had not begun and living conditions had not improved, and expressed concern about rain affecting families living in tents as winter approached.
He also described Israelis and Palestinians as still caught in unresolved trauma linked to October 7, and said he saw no emerging willingness to stop the conflict. The reopening of Gaza’s parish school, however, had brought joy to the community and served as a sign that people wanted to begin again, he said.
EWTN reported that Pope Francis had maintained regular contact with Holy Family Church for about 19 months before his death in 2025. Romanelli recalled that Francis called him on April 19, two days before his death, said he was praying for the parish and blessed its members. 1*
Christian lament shapes moral responsibility amid civilian suffering
Christian lament is not passive sorrow or despair. It names civilian suffering truthfully before God and refuses to treat it as normal, deserved, or politically expendable. In the prophetic tradition, lament protests evil while appealing to God’s justice and mercy; because it trusts that suffering is not the final word, Christian hope deepens rather than silences grief.
That grief carries moral responsibility. To mourn civilians is to recognize their vulnerability and dignity, resist indifference, and let their suffering challenge our judgments and actions. The Church’s concern cannot stop at its visible boundaries: Christians are called to shoulder one another’s burdens and attend to the sorrows of the wider human family.
Lament also disciplines public response. It should lead toward protection of life, truthful witness, compassion, and efforts for peace—not vengeance, propaganda, or the reduction of suffering to a political instrument. Christian grief does not rule out advocacy or action, but it insists that action remain answerable to the human beings who suffer and be continually tested against Christ’s meaning of peace.
The supplied material offers a theological framework, not evidence about any particular conflict or a judgment on responsibility for specific events. Its central implication is clear: to lament civilian suffering faithfully is already to reject indifference, and it obliges Christians to seek responses that honor the lives and dignity of those who suffer.