The pontiff expressed the hope that, “With the decisive commitment of the international community, the cease-fire in the Gaza strip will be re-established, and that negotiations for peace will resume.”
Separately, Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, has dismissed criticism by Israel of remarks he made in saying that the Gaza Strip “more and more … resembles a concentration camp.”
Igal Palmor, the spokesperson of Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs, had denounced Martino’s comments, made to an Italian newspaper. “The cardinal speaks as Hamas does,” said Palmor, referring to the Islamic Resistance Movement that rules the Gaza Strip and from there supports the targeting of missiles on cities in southern Israel.
In an interview with the Rome-based La Repubblica newspaper about Palmor’s criticism, Martino said, “They can say what they want, but the situation in Gaza is terrible.” The cardinal said he condemned both parties in the present confrontation, “Israel, when so many children are killed, and UN schools bombarded in Gaza — and Hamas when it launches rockets against Israel.”
Pope Benedict in his comments made no mention of hopes for a papal visit to the Holy Land. Vatican spokesperson Federico Lombardi said in November that “diplomatic contacts” were being held “to study the possibility of a pilgrimage of the pontiff during 2009.”
Church sources, who requested anonymity, told Ecumenical News International on January 9 that the events in Gaza had “complicated” preparations for a visit, and that so far no decision had been taken.
Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodriguez Maradiaga, archbishop of Tegucigalpa in Honduras, and president of Caritas Internationalis, a grouping of Catholic agencies, said, “War cannot be justified by either Israel or Hamas. Arguments over proportionality are repugnant when we are talking about the lives of innocent children.”
