In response to the ongoing crisis in Palestine, Pax Christi International has published the following new message to Christian leaders.
In our pain, anguish, and lament, we have searched for God, and found Him under the rubble of Gaza.
Rev. Munther Isaac
Brussels — The unthinkable violence in the Holy Land has shaken us. The horrific brutality of the Hamas assault on 7 October has been met with months of unrelenting bombardment causing unthinkable death, injury, and destruction. With the denial of the essentials of life – water, food, shelter, medicine – and a litany of dehumanising and incendiary rhetoric, we’ve watched the worst impulses of revenge and rage take hold.
As we approach Holy Week, Pax Christi International, an organisation dedicated to nonviolence as the only path to a sustainable peace, implores you to speak out forcefully and often calling for an end to this carnage. Not one more life should be sacrificed. In sermons and parish messages, in pastoral letters and statements you have the unique power to awaken the hearts and minds of the faithful. We beg you to use it. Call for an immediate bi-lateral ceasefire, the release of all hostages and those held in Israeli detention and the restoration of critical UNRWA funding.
Our resolve and courage to stand with the powerless is being tested.We look to you, our spiritual leaders, for a prophetic voice to denounce the evil of war and the killing of so many innocent men, women, and children…some barely in this world for hours.
Do we speak out on behalf of the most vulnerable…those caught in the crosshair of bullets and bombs? Does our collective Christian voice echo the teachings of Jesus or has it, in its tepid silence, become another weapon?
We shudder to think that the cries of the living stones of Palestine have fallen on deaf ears.
When will our sisters and brothers in Gaza know that the Church has not abandoned them?
Or, like Jesus, will they be left to suffer alone in a garden of rubble?
Have we too fallen asleep?
The time to speak is now. There is not a minute to waste.
Use this link to visit the Pax Christi International page for more information and action suggestions.
Keep praying and working by all means possible to affect the real evil being perpetrated in Uk-raine, West Bank and Gaza as well as all conflicts around our globe Pledged by Our Lady of Czetekowhowa
I urge Christian groups to have interaction with Jewish groups who have been working against West Bank settlements and for a Two State solution, such as Rabbis for Human Rights.
Don’t fail to mention Jewish Voice for Peace. Its members have been working for a just peace for years and continues to work for a just peace in the Holy Land.