Ireland’s two main churches have reacted forcefully to the continuing suffering of the people of Gaza and have demanded action to end it.
“It appears that humanity has lost its heart,” the Catholic bishops have said. “From all over Ireland, parishioners are reporting their horror and helplessness on seeing images of death and communal destruction in Gaza,” they said.
In a joint statement, the two Church of Ireland archbishops said: “It is with outrage that we watch the desperation, dislocation, and defenceless resident population of Gaza who feel they have been abandoned by the world.”
Archbishop of Armagh John McDowell and Archbishop of Dublin and Bishop of Glendalough Michael Jackson said “the international community must grasp reality and respond as never before. They can no longer stand by and watch the cruel starvation of innocent people.”
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The Catholic bishops’ statement noted how in Gaza, “exhausted mothers can no longer nourish their young, children are dying of malnutrition, while aid lorries full of supplies are being refused entry into the territory, or are not safely arriving at their destination”.
They said that “to see the relentless bombardment of civilian areas, the deliberate withholding of food from the starving, as well as the callous holding of hostages, it appears that humanity has lost its heart”.
The Church of Ireland archbishops said the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, owned and run by the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem, has reopened after being bombed on Palm Sunday.
Its “resilient” and “courageous staff” are now “operating in a tent” and “treating the injured and sick as best they can, in what is by anyone’s reckoning a living wasteland”.
They pledged “our continuing support” for them.
The Catholic bishops called “on all Catholics” to make the first Friday, June 6th, a day of prayer and fasting in solidarity with people in the Holy Land. They invited everyone to pray throughout June “for the renewal of heart that our world so desperately needs”.
Archbishops McDowell and Jackson called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, the release of all hostages, and the “influx of every kind of appropriate aid to alleviate starvation, injury and lack of shelter”.
They acknowledged many “feel hopeless and powerless to change what is happening in Gaza”.
“We pray that all those in positions of power globally will stand up and demand an end to this cruelty and seek the reinstitution of international law.”
