‘We’re orphans now’ say Gaza Catholics who Pope called daily

“As-salaam Alaikum” or “peace be upon you,” Pope Francis ventured in Arabic while talking to parishioners in Gaza earlier this year.

A short video released by the Vatican upon his death showed his intimate relationship with the Palestinian territory’s tiny Christian community, many of whom he came to know by name.

During 18-months of war, he took to calling them nightly to check on their wellbeing.

“What did you eat today?” the Pope asks the local priests in the video, having switched to Italian. “The rest of the chicken from yesterday,” replies Father Gabriel Romanelli.

Only a few hundred Christians remain in Gaza among the territory’s almost entirely Muslim population of more than 2 million. Many have been living, as well as worshipping, at the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City.

With the Pope’s death they feel they have lost a dear friend.

“He used to call us daily during the war, on the black days under the bombing – on the days when people were killed and injured,” Father Romanelli said.

“Sometimes, we didn’t have a phone connection for hours and the Pope with all of his responsibilities would try to reach us.”

George Anton, a local Catholic, is the emergency coordinator in the Holy Family church. He told me that shock left him virtually speechless the first time he spoke to the Pope but that he ended up talking to him regularly on video calls.

He explained to the pontiff how he had lost his home and relatives.

“He was all the time blessing me and he was totally understanding our situation and he always encouraged us to be strong,” Mr Anton said. “And he asked ‘What can I do for you? What more can I do for you’?”

The Gazan Christians say they will now miss a great source of comfort and support.

“We felt like ‘Oh my God, we’re like orphans now’,” Mr Anton said.

“There will be no calls from the Pope, we will not hear this voice.  We will not hear his sense of humour. You know Pope Francis has a special relation with Gaza, and with every one of us.”

Pope Francis visited the Holy Land in 2014. A defining image of his trip came at an unscheduled stop off in Bethlehem when he prayed for peace by the graffitied wall that forms part of Israel’s West Bank barrier.

On Sunday in his Easter message, his last public appearance, he was again calling for peace and a ceasefire in Gaza.

With his words read by an aide, he said: “The terrible conflict continues to cause death and destruction and to create a dramatic and deplorable humanitarian situation.”

“War is not just weapons. War is sometimes words,” the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said when I asked him about the Pope’s final address. He said the Pope had a moral clarity.

“Pope Francis recently, especially in the last year, has been very outspoken about the situation of the Holy Land, calling for the liberation of the hostages, but also condemning the dramatic situation, the ongoing war in Gaza and the situation for Palestinians,” the cardinal said.

Israeli media has noted that while President Isaac Herzog expressed condolences to the Catholic world, there were not similar comments from the prime minister or foreign minister as would have been expected – widely attributed to the Pope’s strong positions against the Gaza war.

Some of his most explicit criticism of Israel came late last year when excerpts of an upcoming book were published.

“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” Pope Francis wrote.

“It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”

Israel firmly rejects allegations of genocide in Gaza and says its war goal is to defeat Hamas.

As a conclave gets under way in Rome this week to decide Pope Francis’s successor, Palestinians and Israelis will be watching closely to see what the next Pope has to say about their intractable conflict.

Christians in Gaza say they hope that whoever is chosen will be pushing for peace.