After the bodies of six hostages killed by Hamas were recovered by Israeli forces at the end of August, Pope Francis made an impassioned plea for peace in the Holy Land, urging the release of the remaining hostages and humanitarian aid for the polio outbreak in Gaza.
Speaking to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Sunday Angelus prayer, the pope expressed deep concern at the risk of the war between Israel and Hamas “spreading to other Palestinian cities.”
“I appeal for the negotiations to continue, for an immediate cease-fire, the release of hostages, and relief to the people of Gaza, where many diseases are also spreading, such as polio,” Pope Francis said on Sept. 1.
“May there be peace in the Holy Land!” he urged. “May there be peace in Jerusalem. May the Holy City be a place of encounter where Christians, Jews, and Muslims feel they are respected and welcomed, and no one questions the status quo in the respective Holy Places.”
The pope’s comments come just hours after Israel announced on Sunday that it had recovered the bodies of six hostages killed by Hamas from a subterranean tunnel in the Gazan city of Rafah shortly before the arrival of Israeli Defense Forces and as a humanitarian polio vaccination campaign began in Gaza.
Among the hostages killed was 23-year-old Israeli American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose mother met Pope Francis last fall to appeal for the hostages’ release and spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August. According to the Associated Press, Israel believes that 101 hostages remain captive by Hamas in Gaza, including 35 who are believed to be dead.
Israel and Hamas have agreed to a “humanitarian pause” for three consecutive days to allow aid workers to begin the campaign, which aims to vaccinate more than 640,000 Palestinian children under the age of 10 against polio.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza has deteriorated rapidly as the conflict drags on. Aid agencies’ officials in the territory have warned of a potential public health disaster if immediate action is not taken.
During his Angelus address, the pope also prayed for the hundreds of people who were killed in a terrorist attack in Burkina Faso on Aug. 24. An Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group in West Africa known as Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) claimed responsibility for the attack.
“In condemning these heinous attacks against human life, I express my closeness to the nation as a whole and my heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims. May the Virgin Mary help the beloved people of Burkina Faso to regain peace and security,” Pope Francis said, according to a Catholic News Agency report.
The pope also expressed his concern that over a million people have been left without electricity and water after attacks on energy infrastructure in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“I am always close to the tormented Ukrainian people, hard hit by attacks on the energy infrastructure. Besides causing deaths and injuries, they have left over a million people without electricity and water,” he said.
“Let us remember that the voice of the innocent is always heard by God, who does not remain indifferent to their suffering,” Pope Francis added.
In his reflection on Sunday’s Gospel, Pope Francis warned against the temptation of hypocrisy and underlined the importance of having genuine purity of heart.
“Purity, Jesus says, is not linked to external rites but is first and foremost linked to inner dispositions, interior dispositions,” the pope said, citing chapter 7 of the Gospel of Mark.
“To be pure, therefore, it is no use washing one’s hands several times if one then, within the heart, harbors evil feelings such as greed, envy, or pride, or evil intentions such as deceit, theft, betrayal, and slander.”
Pope Francis added that Christians should take care not to live a “double life” in which they appear “pious in prayer but then treat one’s own relatives at home with coldness and detachment, or neglect their elderly parents, who are in need of help and company” or “gossip wickedly” in front of the church after Mass.
“Let us ask ourselves, then: Do I live my faith in a consistent manner, that is, what I do in Church, do I try to do outside in the same spirit?” he said.
