The Vatican has sharply escalated its rhetoric against Israel following a deadly Israeli military strike on the only Catholic church in Gaza, which killed three civilians and wounded several others, including the parish priest. The incident has provoked a rare and direct rebuke from Pope Leo XIV and other top Catholic officials, marking a significant shift from the Vatican’s typically neutral diplomatic stance.
According to AFP, the strike on the Holy Family Church in central Gaza City “prompted condemnation by politicians and by religious leaders of various denominations.” Pope Leo XIV, speaking on Sunday after the Angelus at Castel Gandolfo, named the victims—Saad Issa Kostandi Salameh, Foumia Issa Latif Ayyad, and Najwa Ibrahim Latif Abu Daoud—and said he was “close” to their families, expressing his “deep sorrow” and calling for “an immediate halt to the barbarity” in Gaza.
The Vatican’s concern is not only humanitarian, but deeply spiritual. The attack happened on what the Vatican considers sacred ground. According to Francois Mabille of France’s Geopolitical Observatory of Religion, the strike has led to “at least a temporary shift in Catholic opinion in general,” fueled by outrage that Christian places of refuge and worship have become targets.
For Pope Leo XIV, the incident underscored a broader crisis of conscience. “This is just one of the continuous military attacks against the civilian population and places of worship in Gaza,” he said. He also warned that such violence violates the tenets of humanitarian law, calling on the international community to respect “the obligation to protect civilians, as well as the prohibition against collective punishment, indiscriminate use of force, and forced displacement of the population.”
On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally called Pope Leo to express “deep regret” over what his office described as a “stray missile,” pledging an investigation. Vatican officials, however, cast doubt on this explanation. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, said in an interview with Rai 2 that Israel must “publicise the findings of its investigation to find out ‘if it really was an error, which we can legitimately doubt, or if there was a will to directly attack a Christian church.’”
The Vatican’s resolve was further demonstrated by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, who visited Gaza personally on Friday to celebrate Mass and tend to the wounded. “We are not a target,” he told Corriere della Sera. “They say it was a mistake, even if everyone here does not believe that is the case.”
The Pope’s message extended beyond condemnation, reaching out to the broader Christian community. “You are in the heart of the Pope and of the whole Church,” he said in a message to Christians in the Middle East. “Thank you for your witness of faith.”
In a follow-up to the church strike, Pope Leo spoke with journalists after celebrating Mass in Albano. He said the world must “pray for peace, and try to convince all parties to come to the table, to dialogue and to lay down their weapons.” He added, “The world can’t take it any more. There is so much conflict, so many wars.”
In his phone call with Netanyahu, Pope Leo stressed the need to protect “sacred places of all religions” and urged both sides to “respect people and sacred places and try to leave behind all the violence and the hatred.”
Some Catholic leaders have gone even further in their criticism. Cardinal Augusto Paolo Lojudice, a Vatican tribunal judge, called Netanyahu “a tyrant pursuing a dark and bloodthirsty plan for power,” accusing the Israeli government of engaging in “evil without logic” in Gaza, according to La Stampa.
The Vatican, which officially recognized the state of Palestine in 2015 and continues to advocate for a two-state solution, is now invoking precise language grounded in international law. As Mabille observed, Pope Leo’s recent comments identified four violations of humanitarian law by Israel: collective punishment, indiscriminate use of force, forced displacement, and attacks on civilians and sacred spaces.
The consequences of this shift in Vatican rhetoric could be far-reaching. As Pope Leo concluded in his Sunday address, “We insisted on the need to protect the sacred places of all religions… and to respect people and sacred places and try to leave behind all the violence and the hatred.” For the Catholic Church, the strike on the Holy Family Church may mark a turning point—not just in diplomatic tone, but in the global moral reckoning over the Gaza war.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shown his inability to consider a two state solution. The Israeli people seem trapped by his destructive continuance of war. The killing of children is not an accident in Gaza any longer, unfortuetly genocide is the language that fits.