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24 Hours of Prayer for Gaza – Letter from Fr Carlos
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A letter from Fr Carlos Ferrero, the Provincial Superior of the Institute of the Incarnate Word in Gaza
Dear Archbishop Eamon, and all the Faithful gather in prayer at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh, Ireland. May the Lord give you peace!
I would like to begin thanking you all for this wonderful initiative of praying for peace! I am Fr. Carlos Ferrero, the Provincial Superior of the institute of the Incarnate Word. I am here in Gaza, with Fr. Gabriel Romanelli, the Parish Priest and Fr. Iusuf Asad the Assistant Priest. By the way, they are grateful for these prayers and asked me to convey their greetings and prayers to all of you. Our religious province goes from Cyprus to Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Syria. This, Holy Family Parish, belongs to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, it is the Archdiocese of Jerusalem. The Patriarch of Jerusalem is His Beatitude Pierbattista Cardinal Pizzaballa. Together we have two religious communities, that is three Missionaries of Charity and two Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara. The latter is female branch of our Religious Family of the Incarnate Word.
I came to Gaza with Fr. Gabriel Romanelli in mid-May 2024. He was in Jerusalem when the war started and could not enter until that date and thanks to the Patriarch who managed to organize a pastoral visit to the Parish. We enter with him and remain behind authorized by Israel government. We were ready to be here some time, actually, Fr. Gabriel told me: “Look. This might be long”. Really, we never thought that it was going to be like this. There have been many wars here, but the longest was for a month or so. I came to visit Gaza several times for Christmas and after wars like those. Now I am fifteen months here.
We organized a informal School and managed to teach and be recognized by the Palestinian Ministry of Education. At least we saved on school year. Another activity is the “Oratorio”, particularly for children and no so young. It begins with prayers, sometimes there is a catechetical talk and many games. It’s a lot of fun even for the elders. It’s being some time now that because the insecurity due to the bombing and so on, we had to stop all this. Just today, we resumed the Oratorio! The thing is near the Church building and the doors are open in case they need to run inside for protection from the shrapnel.
There is a common kitchen. Three times a week some food is prepared for every family according to the number of members. Other days they can go and cook by themselves if they like to do so. It is all on firewood that we managed to accumulate during the first month of the war. You may imagine that people living now in the classrooms of the Parish School have to share many things and everything. Of course, each family has its own space as possible.
The situation is very complicated. We receive the general information from the media and keep contact with the Patriarch and the Patriarchate offices always. They are very close to us and supportive in every way possible. The Patriarch visited the Parish last
Christmas and again last month. This visit was the day after the rocket hit our Church provoking fifteen injured of which three died. Actually Fr. Gabriel and Fr. Iusuf Asad were among the injured. The Patriarch does what ever possible to help the people, Christians and non-Christians.
In our Holy Family Church, we have more than four hundred Christians refugees. Including about fifty disable people in the Home of Charity run by the MC Sisters. In the Orthodox Church, there are more than two hundred people as refugees. There is the Orthodox Bishp and the Parish Priest. Few people are living outside the compound in their home or of a relative.
We try our best to give hope to everyone. Our day is organized around prayers. We have a holy hour from 7 to 8 am. Many children and others are participating. The hour finishes with the morning prayer and the Eucharistic blessing. At 5 pm we begin the holy rosary and after the Holy Mass. The altar servers are well committed and participate in all the activities. When it was safe we used to gather at 10 pm at the entrance of our house to say the night prayers. The Sisters had organized the children and youth to share and guide the prayers.
The issue of lacking food is real. For very long months there was not any relief allowed in. Not everyone has money enough for war prices. Not everyone has a bank account with money to pay with a credit card as it was permitted with an overcharge that reached up to 57%, due to the bank transaction. Now it is about 40%. The food distribution has proved not good. I read that the Deputy of WFP explained that people were desperate, hungry and not sure they would get anything if they didn’t go to get it from the trucks. The people are suffering and pushed by the circumstances to behave in a way that nobody wants.
In this long period that I’m here, we received, maybe three or four times, humanitarian aid with the help of the Patriarchate and donors. We have developed a distribution center near the Parish and managed to served more than seventy thousand people in one of those times. But lately we have not received anything and it has become very difficult for everyone. Thanks to God the Patriarchate managed to send some food items there were distributed among us and more than two thousand families in the neighborhood. The average for family is five members or more.
We have a great work done by Caritas. They have a Center here in Gaza city that is working serving more than tree hundred patients per day. There are about five more Caritas centers and in total they have about one thousand four hundred patients per day. They are doing a great job. We have some doctors as refugees in our Church compound and have organized a pharmacy that has a minimum and is also lacking many things.
We have solar panels and two generators but the engines need diesel that it is not easy to get and sometimes very expensive. Some NGOs help us with this. We need it for pumping water to roofs. We also get light for the compound.
I hope that now you have a better idea of all what we are going through and that it will inspire you to continue praying for us and for peace. Let me say that one of the miracles God is doing these days is the millions of people praying for peace in Gaza, in Ukraine and the other places like in Africa where there are wars going on and many people are suffering. I am convinced that there are millions of people praying for peace.
We thank you again and promise to pray for you! May God bless you and the Virgin Mary be always near you!!
Fr. Carlos.
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