Bombardment on Gaza is still going on. Electricity comes and goes and it’s not easy for Ft. Romanelli to stay online and tell us what is going on over there. The urgency of communicating to everyone what the situation in one of the places most hitted by the escalation of violence currently tormenting the Holy Land is too strong, though.
“In Gaza we can feel the war coming” said Romanelli in last Friday's online meeting. You can watch the meeting clicking on this link.
“The first thing we did” says Ft Gabriel, “was to get in contact with all the people of our Parish, reaching out to all the families”. Many members of the small catholic community of Gaza, 133 souls, don’t have electricity or running water anymore. Damages to houses were also common. Ft Gabriel provided material and spiritual help to his Christian family.
It is more difficult to reach the Isalmic families helped by the parish: the streets and the main buildings of the most populated and poor Muslim neighbourhoods were destroyed by bombs and people still having a house are staying inside.
“All the signals are leading us to the conclusion that, this time, there will be no armistice” says Ft. Romanelli before mentioning the “174 deaths caused by rockets , 48 of them being kids. I cannot even recall how many evacuee and injured people there are. We are preparing schools for hosting them, Saint Thomas College as well, a school where pupils are cristian and Professors are mostly Muslim, a true example of Peace and Respect”.
“I ask the Lord to forgive everyone, the victims and those that, by killing them, lost their souls. I pray for my Parish not to lose joy and happiness, the ability to see what’s good”. Ft Gabriel and Pro Terra Sancta did not leave the “butterfly children” and the many kids attending the catholic schools. “Our mission is to evangelize but we also want to teach the christian values of forgiveness, reconciliation, peace and justice”. Those are the values needed to keep a less and less alive Hope on.
According to Ft Romanelli, the right formula to solve this moment of violence is one and one only: have realistic goals, respect the timing given to us by God and keep in doing good deeds with the help of our many benefactors that did not leave elderly people, kids and parishes behind but are still building their human dignity by doing charity.” “Nevertheless, today I saw some very well dressed kids playing in the streets and celebrating the last days of Ramadan while bombs were still falling down” says a moved Romanelli, “it means that life still goes on”, despite everything.
