Overview
- Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa arrived Friday for a pastoral visit to Holy Family parish and will preside over Christmas Mass on Sunday, according to the Latin Patriarchate.
- His agenda includes reviewing humanitarian response and rehabilitation efforts as parish life cautiously resumes.
- He told parishioners he sees “a little light of hope” in children’s activities and the parish school despite ongoing hardship.
- Holy Family remains a refuge for Gaza’s tiny Christian community, with the patriarchate counting 135 Catholics among roughly 1,000 Christians in the territory.
- The compound was struck in July by fragments from an Israeli shell that killed three people, an incident Israel called accidental and regretted, even as the UN now says the August-declared famine has ended though food needs remain critical.