Watch | The Unknown Story of Pope Francis’s Deep Concern for Gaza

Starting the day after the Israel-Hamas war broke out in October 2023, Pope Francis showed a deep concern for the people of Gaza. It’s reported that “He would make nightly phone calls to the Holy Family Church, the only Catholic church in Gaza, to offer prayers and words of encouragement to both Christians and Muslims sheltering within its walls”. Professor Jayati Ghosh, a Member of the Vatican’s Jubilee Debt Commission, says that he continued to make such calls even when he was in hospital and resumed them when he came back to convalesce in the Vatican. This is an aspect of Pope Francis that has not been widely reported which Ghosh recounts in some detail in this interview.

“His legacy was one that showed that it’s possible to be moral and ethical and yet play a powerful geopolitical role … it’s such a rare message and it’s such an important message … it’s the first time that a Pope has put out this important message of global solidarity, planetary survival and the significance of changing our economic structures, away from inequality, away from the focus on corporate profits and for the poor, for the elimination of hunger … these are extraordinary things for a religious personage to highlight globally.”

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