President Biden declared yesterday that he had spoken with Pope Francis the day before and that the Pope was completely supported Biden’s actions on the crisis in Gaza. “The Pope and I are on the same page. I laid out to him what the game plan was, how we thought we should be providing the kind of assistance to Israel they needed and the Pope was across-the-board supportive of what we’re doing.” However, it is not clear that the Pope actually gave the President his blessings.
Prior to the phone conversation on Sunday, Oct. 22, the Pope, at the Angelus prayer, renewed his appeals for peace and restraint in the war in the Holy Land. “I am very concerned, grieved. I pray and I am close to all those who are suffering, the hostages, the wounded, the victims and their families.” He specifically mentioned the bombings in Gaza City of the Anglican hospital (Al Ahli Arab Hospital) and the St. Porphyrios Greek Orthodox complex. Most in the West—and certainly Joe Biden—do not understand the Pope’s concern for the rarely-mentioned Greek Orthodox church.
The latter bombing, which occurred about 36 hours after the Oct. 17 hospital bombing, took the lives of hundreds of Christians and Muslims who had sought refuge at the historic church’s facilities. (In this case, Israel has not denied its involvement in the bombing.) The church stated: “Archbishop Alexios appears to have been located and is alive….” The statement from the Patriarchate of Jerusalem objected to “targeting churches,” especially ones sheltering refugees, as a war crime.
