With Mother Teresa during the hardest days of Gaza City
The Latin parish of the Holy Family this morning celebrated the feast of the saint of the least and the defenceless. In 1982, she visited the community of the Missionaries of Charity that still exists in Gaza, staying in the home with the disabled placed in their care. Amid the war, the saint’s face of love is stronger than hate.
Milan (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The Latin parish of the Holy Family in Gaza entrusted itself to the intercession of Mother Teresa, the saint of the least and the defenceless, at this time of war.
With her picture at the foot of the altar, Fr Gabriel Romanelli this morning led the solemnity, celebrating Saint Teresa of Kolkata on her liturgical feast day, exactly 28 years after her death, which he shared on social media with the usual images of community life.
The small and troubled Latin Rite church prepared the celebration with a novena that began a few days ago, continuing just as Israeli attacks are getting ever closer and Israeli troops move towards Gaza City.
The parish of the Holy Family and the Missionaries of Charity share a special bond. Along with the Argentine nuns of the Servants of the Lord and of the Virgin of Matara (the female branch of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, to which Fr Romanelli belongs), Mother Teresa’s missionaries are the only Catholic nuns remaining in Gaza.
The Sisters of Mother Teresa came to Gaza in February 1973. From the start, they shared the suffering of this tormented land, arriving a few weeks after the killing of the parish priest of the Latin community, Fr Hanna Al-Nimri. It fell to them to clean the bloodstained walls.
Their ministry over the past 50 years has focused primarily on the care of scores of severely disabled people housed in their home, located within the parish compound.
Mother Teresa visited the place in 1982, during her trip to the Holy Land. That same year, in neighbouring Lebanon, at the height of the Israeli siege of Beirut, she dedicated herself to rescuing a hundred children from a Muslim orphanage.
As Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilus III wrote a few days ago, the Missionaries of Charity chose to remain in Gaza City, close to the vulnerable people entrusted to them.
In the heart of the war, the face of Mother Teresa also remains with them, an icon of a love stronger than hatred and ideological conflict, stronger than ever 700 days after the start of this tragedy, a sign of peace for all in the heart of Gaza.
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