The parish priest and the other religious of the Holy Family Catholic Church in the Gaza Strip have chosen to continue “serving those in need—the elderly, the sick.”

Speaking to Vatican News, Fr. Gabriel Romanelli said, “We are in the Lord’s hands, and we trust that, with the help of many good people around the world, this will stop.”

Everyone gathered at the only Catholic parish in Gaza “are here for Jesus Christ, to serve Him in the Eucharist, and we serve Him in the person of the poor and the sick, of those who suffer,” said the Argentinian-born priest.

Fr. Romanelli and the religious men and women with him in the compound have chosen to remain at the side of those in need and to “serve everyone,” since that is what the Lord has asked of them, he said.

In the parish, along with the parish priest, there are other priests of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, sisters of the same religious family, and the Missionaries of Charity.

“We all share the same feelings,” said Fr. Romanelli. “Seeing the needs of the elderly, of those who are anxious, of those who are sad and anguished, of people with disabilities, we understand that the Lord is calling us to continue serving them—because otherwise, how will those people survive, how will they manage?”

Pray for peace, stop the war

The parish priest and the other religious join the appeal issued on Tuesday by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III.

Fr. Romanelli said he and all in the Gaza parish “continue to pray for peace, for the freedom of all those who are deprived of it, for the hostages, for the possibility that the thousands and thousands of sick and wounded people who cannot find, anywhere in the entire Gaza Strip, the care they need may be treated.”

Destruction, deaths, and injuries

The situation in Gaza City has become particularly serious in recent weeks, with an escalation in military operations and bombings in various parts of the city.

Fr. Romanelli said these operations have brought “more deaths, more destruction, more wounded.”

“This is the general situation which, looking to the future, creates more uncertainty for everyone: the fact that the war will continue and that the next stage could be war directly against the city of Gaza,” he said.

Fr. Romanelli invited everyone to pray for peace and called for an end to the conflict.

“We, with great simplicity and humility, will carry on here,” he said. “It is not easy, but we are in the Lord’s hands, and we trust that, with the help of many good people in the world, all this will one day stop.”