Aid to the Church in Need: Holy Land: Salvaging hope from the wreckage

Holy Land: Salvaging hope from the wreckage

Posted by Press release on 27/1/2009, 7:03 am
Board Administrator

ACN News, Monday, 27th January 2009 – HOLY LAND

Salvaging hope from the wreckage

By John Pontifex

GAZA’S only Catholic priest has given a dramatic account of a people “under siege for 22 days” and underlined the enormous task of rebuilding a community devastated by violence.
Speaking from Gaza City in an interview with the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Monsignor Manuel Musallam described how people had not eaten for up to four days and how people had suffered horrific injuries, leaving them with mutilated limbs.
Saying “I have seen people with burnt faces – women and children.”, he highlighted the scale of the physical suffering inflicted by the Israeli attacks on Gaza in which at least 1,300 died and more than 5,500 were injured.
But he insisted on refusing to give in to despair. Mgr Musallam, who is parish priest of Holy Family, Gaza City, said: “We are testifying to Christ in this terrible situation.
“We see no sign of a lasting peace but my task remains the same – to preach hope – to tell people to hope against hope. Only that way can we begin to put an end to this hellish experience.”
The priest himself narrowly escaped death when a bomb landed on his roof. “It made a large hole but somehow it did not explode but bounced down to the ground.”
He said a stray bomb landed in the playground of the school of the Rosary Sisters in Gaza City.
“Thank God it did not explode,” he said, “but it continued to burn, creating a terrible smell. Two days later, the soldiers made it safe.”
He said that for many days not many people in the centre of Gaza city had been able to access the humanitarian help sent by aid organisations.
The priest said the food and other basic provisions were stored in schools and other official buildings only accessible for people on the edge of the city and that others could not get there because the streets were too dangerous.
But, with a ceasefire now in place, he said more people were receiving aid.
The priest was speaking after meeting Archbishop Antonio Franco, Apostolic Delegate to Jerusalem, who travelled to Gaza on Wednesday (21st January) with aid from Pope Benedict XVI.
Mgr Musallam described opening the doors of his parish school to a Catholic family including a father who received a shrapnel wound in his leg while searching the streets for food and a small stove to boil water and milk for his sick child.
He said: “When the family came in, I handed the wounded man’s wife – a former teacher at our school – a cup of water. She began to weep because she’d not had a proper drink for four days.”
As part of its work for persecuted and other suffering Christians, Aid to the Church in Need gave $40,000 for emergency help in Gaza, working closely with Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem and Mgr Musallam.
The priest said as many as 60 people attended Mass in his church which he celebrated on Sunday(18th), the day after Israel declared the ceasefire.
It was the faithful’s first chance to mourn the four Catholics who died in the attacks who include 16-year-old Christine Wadi Turk, who died, apparently of shock.
Turning to the massive clear-up operation ahead, Mgr Musallam said it was still unclear how many had died with many collapsed buildings needing to be searched for bodies.
The priest said that just as serious as the number of fatalities was the psychological trauma the people had suffered.
“I do not know how many have lost their minds through trauma,” he said. “When the bombing began – day or night – people would rush from their rooms and cram themselves into the bathroom and lock the door. They thought that was the safest place.”

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 45 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information, please contact the Sydney office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org