A significant legacy of Pope Francis will be how he kept Palestinians close to his heart. The pontiff consistently and repeatedly called for a Gaza ceasefire and a release of the Israeli hostages, and he brought particular attention to the suffering and dignity of Palestinians, including of Gaza’s small Christian community, which he phoned regularly. In a number of important ways, Pope Francis prioritized Palestine as part of his commitment to a just peace for all Palestinians and Israelis.
A clarion voice for Palestinian lives
Over his last 18 months, Pope Francis was a compassionate and moral voice for justice for Palestinians, though his empathy and advocacy were anything but new.
During his visit to the Holy Land in 2014, the pope spent time in both Israel and the West Bank, including visiting Bethlehem. There, he made an iconic, impromptu stop to pray and put his hand on the separation wall. Spray-painted on it was the message: “Pope, we need some 1 to speak about justice.”
In reflecting on this gesture, Palestinian Lutheran pastor Dr. Munther Isaac commented: “For a few hours we forgot we were occupied.” During that trip, Francis also became the first pope to refer to the occupied West Bank as the “State of Palestine.”
In the many months since Hamas’ horrific attack on southern Israel and Israel’s ensuing indiscriminate military assault on Gaza, Pope Francis showed particular care for Palestinian lives, which were being taken at a rate that overshadowed other 21st-century conflicts.
In various statements, he decried the atrocities unfolding in Gaza with clarity and conviction. He expressed sadness about Israel’s “heavy bombing” in Gaza, calling it “cruelty” and “terrorism.” He also suggested that Israel’s attacks in Gaza and Lebanon were “immoral” and “disproportionate” and that events in Gaza involved “indiscriminately striking the civilian population.”
He implored diplomats not to “forget that grave violations of international humanitarian law are war crimes.” In pleading for an end to the military operations he decried an “appalling harvest of innocent civilian victims.”
Pope Francis often brought attention to the lack of basic necessities in Gaza and the need for greater humanitarian aid. He also called for a “halt to the weapons.” Most notably, Pope Francis wrote in November about the gravity of the situation in Gaza and the legitimacy of investigations into genocide:
“I am thinking above all of those who leave Gaza in the midst of the famine that has struck their Palestinian brothers and sisters given the difficulty of getting food and aid into their territory… According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide. It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”
Prioritizing justice in dialogue
At various points, the pope’s attention to Palestine brought criticism that strained Jewish-Christian relations. He nonetheless maintained a strong commitment to Jewish-Christian dialogue, demonstrating the church’s holistic teachings in regard to interfaith relationships and its mission of justice, peace and reconciliation.
Pope Francis remained vigilant against antisemitism, which he described as a “sin against God.” He was praised for his commitment to outreach to Muslims, and he shared concerns about the state of Israel in alignment with international law and justice. In writing to Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel who criticized his approach, the pontiff expressed his closeness and affection at the same time as his desire to “work for peace and justice” and “create relationships capable of opening new horizons of light for everyone, Israelis and Palestinians.”
Not every move was without a misstep. He was widely criticized for referencing John 8:44, a passage which has been used to justify contempt of the Jewish people, in a letter offering support to Catholics of the Middle East on October 7, 2024. This statement also urged a day of prayer and fasting to bring about peace.
A ministry of pastoral care
As has been widely reported, Pope Francis called Gaza’s Catholic church—where hundreds of Palestinian Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Muslims have been sheltering—nightly; this was true even when he was in the hospital in December for pneumonia.
Video snippets showed his care and attention and even his humor. He asked them pointed questions that spoke to their suffering: “What did you eat today?” He rejoiced in seeing the children smiling and joked, “Pray in favor, not against me!”
And for all of this listening and attention, the Gaza parishioners often showed their affection back, including sending him wishes for a speedy recovery. Reacting to his death, George Antone, head of the emergency committee at the Holy Family church, remarked that he “knows us by name—every single one of us. He used to tell each one: I am with you, don’t be afraid.” Parish priest and fellow Argentinian Father Gabriel Romanelli said the pope’s calls were a “singular expression of his love, his concern . . . [a] sign of hope” when so often the people felt abandoned.
As further evidence of his pastoral care, one of Pope Francis’ last acts in his waning months— revealed after he died—was to gift his popemobile to be made into a mobile health clinic for the children of Gaza. “This vehicle represents the love, care and closeness shown by His Holiness for the most vulnerable,” said Anton Asfar, Secretary General of Caritas Jerusalem.
Going to the margins, leaving no one out
Pope Francis regularly showed closeness to both Palestinians and Israelis. Over these many months, he met with the families of Israeli hostages and with freed hostages, as well as Palestinians whose relatives were suffering in Gaza. He specifically lifted up the work of peacemakers, including Israeli and Palestinian activists and bereaved fathers Rami Elhanan and Bassam Aramin. Although clearly weighing in to lift up the injustices facing Palestinians, this special concern was ultimately more than simply a matter of taking sides.
The pope’s universal solidarity with the marginalized was evident when he was pictured in the Vatican in December 2024 viewing a nativity designed by Palestinian Christians with the baby Jesus wrapped in a keffiyeh. It only made a short-lived appearance, but still entailed a significant gesture.
While clearly a tribute to Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus, it would be a mistake to see the nativity primarily as a show of prioritizing a particular nationality or ethnicity. After all, Christians the world over have enculturated icons and creches as their own. Rather, here the pope was demonstrating that he would make no “Palestine exception” in his exercise of the preferential option for the poor and oppressed.
By then at least 14,000 Palestinian children had been killed in Israel’s military assault on Gaza. He would not stay silent. At the same time, by always remembering the plight of Israeli hostages, the pope showed how the church’s preferential option for the poor—which he described in 2020 as “not a political option . . . ideological option . . . party option” but rather the very “centre of the Gospel”—never excludes anyone from God’s love.
A model that too few followed
Upon the pope’s death, former President Biden said,“He advocated for the voiceless and powerless. . . . He was the people’s pope—a light of faith, hope, and love.” And yet, during his presidency, Biden, only the second Catholic President, failed to follow the pope’s lead. Where Francis showed empathy for both Palestinians and Israelis, Biden exercised his care more exclusively; in a statement marking 100 days after October 7, Biden did not even mention Palestinians, and his administration’s engagement with Arab American, Muslim American, and Palestinian American communities often lacked in substance and ramped up belatedly heading into the spring 2024 election season. By then so much of the damage of U.S. bombs and unconditional military aid, contravening our own American laws as well as Catholic social doctrine, was already done in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
The pope’s example remains important today, as the Trump administration—which has frequently exhibited antisemitic rhetoric and views—has been using accusations of antisemitism to target international students who protest the war in Gaza, through unjust detentions. As a coalition of 10 Jewish groups warned in April, this is undermining the rule of law and making Jews less safe.
The pope’s last message before he died modeled how to stand against antisemitism while also not allowing accusations of it to inappropriately stifle genuine advocacy for Palestinian human rights:
“The growing climate of anti-Semitism throughout the world is worrisome. Yet at the same time, I think of the people of Gaza, and its Christian community in particular, where the terrible conflict continues to cause death and destruction and to create a dramatic and deplorable humanitarian situation.”
Since March 2, Israel has blocked all food, fuel, water and medicine from entering Gaza.
The pope then appealed, as he so often had, for a ceasefire and release of the hostages and ended with an urgent plea for aid to a “starving people that aspires to a future of peace!”
In his final hours, Pope Francis made clear that the Holy Land would never be whole—for the three faiths and the two peoples—until Palestinians are free. May we all take up this important and sacred work.
Image: Wikimedia Commons/Mustafa Bader, Pope Francis visits Bethlehem
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