Tag: pax christi

Holy Family Church Gaza: Solidarity messages from Pax Christi

Fr Romanelli (centre) on a visit to London last year with Bishop Nicholas Hudson (l). Photo: ICN

Pax Christi England and Wales

Pax Christi England and Wales and Pax Christi International have issued the following statements in response to the deadly attack on the Holy Family Church in Gaza yesterday.

This morning’s horrific news that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) struck the Holy Family Church in Gaza is both shocking and shameful. We know that at least six people are injured, including Fr Romanelli, and that two people have been killed. Lord have mercy.

If we are ever to overcome the myth of redemptive violence, then our response is never revenge.

Our response is never apathy. Our response is never neutrality. Instead, we dare to proclaim the revolutionary power of Jesus’ way of nonviolence. The way of the cross, the way of redemptive suffering, that ultimately leads to joy, hope, peace and resurrection.

Today it might seem that we are in the darkness of the tomb. Yet even inside the tomb something is happening. Young people in Tel Aviv are burning their draft cards and refusing to fight for the IDF. Across the world people are non-violently resisting the sale of arms to Israel. Acts of solidarity, prayer and fasting are the tools by which we bring about a revolution of the heart – one person at a time.

Let us never forget the power we each have to make a difference. The works of war destroy lives, land, and futures. The works of mercy support life and bring hope. Let’s commit ourselves afresh to pray and act in every way possible to make real our solidarity with the suffering people of Gaza and bring an end to this genocide in which the UK government is complicit.

Pax Christi International

Pax Christi International supports the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem and strongly condemns today’s Israeli military strike on Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza, a place of sanctuary for displaced civilians.

We stand in solidarity and prayer with all those Christians and Muslims sheltering in the parish compound.

We mourn those who have died, Mr Saad Salameh, Mrs Fumayya Ayaad and Najwa Abu Daoud. We pray that they will rest in peace and send our deepest condolences to their families and friends. We hope for a good recovery for Fr Gabriel and all those injured in the attack.

We echo Pope Leo XIV and the Latin Patriarchate in calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

As the Patriarch has said, ‘The time has come for leaders to raise their voices and to do all that is necessary in order to stop this tragedy, which is humanly and morally unjustified.’

Pax Christi calls on the international community, political and religious, to raise their voices and take urgent action to protect all civilians and humanitarian spaces to enable:

– An immediate and permanent ceasefire and immediate access to humanitarian aid for everyone in Gaza, to be distributed through UNWRA and other experienced NGOs;
-The release of all hostages, Israeli and Palestinian;
-A complete arms embargo on Israel;
-An end to all trade with illegal Israeli settlements;
-An end to the Israeli siege on Gaza and the occupation of the West Bank.

Join Christians for Palestine at the National Rally on 19th July 2025

Join Westminster Justice & Peace and others for a Gaza Memorial Vigil 28th July 2025

Palestinian Olive Oil Blessed at Chrism Mass

Olive harvest in Palestine. Photo – Zaytoun UK

Source: Ann Farr, Pax Christi

In Holy Week our thoughts and prayers are very much on the Holy Land and particularly on the last days of Jesus, as he approached Jerusalem.

In an act of deep symbolism and solidarity a number of Catholic and Anglican Dioceses have again chosen Palestinian Olive Oil as the base for their Holy Oils. These include the Catholic Dioceses of Arundel and Brighton, Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham, Southwark and Westminster and the Anglican Dioceses of Coventry, Leicester, Rochester, Sheffield and Southwark.

Each year, during the Chrism Mass, the local bishop blesses new oils for the diocese. The holy oils are then taken to each parish, where they are used for Sacramental anointing throughout the year.

This year we are again deeply shocked and saddened by all we see and hear from our friends and partners living in the Holy Land.

Palestinians are living in vastly increased poverty as unemployment rises to unprecedented levels and freedom of movement is denied throughout the occupied West Bank. As well as Palestinian olive trees being burst, cut down or uprooted throughout the year, gathering the harvest last Autumn proved to be a greater challenge than normal with extreme violence from the Israeli Military and Israeli settlers. Many families were refused access to their lands and their olives were stolen. We received terrible stories were during this time and sadly one woman farmer, Hanan Abu Salameh, was shot by an Israeli soldier while harvesting olives in Faqua, near Jenin.

Never has our solidarity and support for the Holy Land been needed more and this Easter it’s good to know that we are linked in such a special way to the Palestinian families who have produced the oil that will be used throughout the year in the Sacraments of the Sick, Baptism and Holy Orders and in the anointing of new bishops.

Canon Rob Esdaile, a priest of Arundel & Brighton Diocese, who has long been active in work for peace and justice, says: “The olive tree has long been a symbol of the heritage of the inhabitants of the Holy Land. 

“Psalm 133 uses the vivid image of olive oil running down a man’s beard as a symbol of peace in the community and of ‘brothers dwelling in unity’, while the same oil was used by Samuel to anoint both King Saul and King David.

“It is beyond tragic that Zionist settlers systematically and deliberately destroy Palestinian olive groves, while the annual olive harvest (always a communal effort in Palestinian settlements) in the face of military blockades and the theft of land has become a symbol of resistance and hope. Our liturgical use of Palestinian olive oil is both an act of solidarity and a very physical prayer for the peace of Jerusalem and of the whole Holy Land.”

While we take part in the services of Holy Week, we remember that many Palestinians have been refused permits from the Israeli Authorities to enable them to worship in Jerusalem. We are asked to keep them in our prayers as we hope for a Just Peace for all in the Holy Land.

Find out more about Palestinian Olive Oil at https://zaytoun.uk 

Ann Farr is a member of the Pax Christi International Working Group for a Just Peace in Palestine and Israel

Delivering the petition on human rights on the French-UK borders

By Barbara Kentish, Westminster Justice & Peace Commission Lead on Refugees and Migrants

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Delivering letter at the French Embassy

Five of us, obeying government guidelines on numbers, delivered our letter and petition as promised, to the French Embassy this morning. Pat Gaffney from Pax Christi, Fr Dominic Robinson SJ from Justice and Peace, Brother Johannes from London Catholic Worker, Fr Joe Ryan from West Green Tottenham parish and myself took the hundreds of signatures and our letter asking for French-British collaboration for a humanitarian outcome to the small-boat Channel crossings. We succeeded in handing it over to officials at the French Embassy in leafy Knightsbridge and had a pleasant walk across the park to the Home Office in Marsham Street. Here we found a very closed door. The head security officer told us, after he had investigated, that delivering petitions could only be done if accompanied by a solicitor! We had emailed earlier in the week, with copy of our letter, but this was not enough: you need your solicitor to go along too, so after a friendly chat with the security man, we beat a retreat. Rather like the rules on COVID 19, the UK Home Office can be extremely unpredictable. We will make an appointment of course, but this could be a long wait!

Turned back from the Home Office

There is still time to sign the petition until we get an appointment with Ms Priti Patel’s elusive staff!

Meanwhile, our friends on the other side of the Channel in Calais demonstrate for human rights in their city today (Saturday, 26 September.) We wish them well, and pray that they will be heard as they claim not only rights for migrants, but also for themselves, so they don’t pick up the infections.

Sign the petition here: www.change.org/p/demand-that-the-french-and-uk-governments-recognise-people-s-human-rights-and-safe-routes-to-asylum

Ash Wednesday Witness


These Angels helped us to demonstrate and protest the links between war, the excessive demands made on the planet’s resources by militarisation, and the current climate emergency.

The annual Ash Wednesday procession through Whitehall Gardens and prayer vigil outside the Ministry of Defence (MoD) took place yesterday. Organised by Pax Christi, Christian CND and the London Catholic Worker –  the message of peace and reconciliation was emphasised with fresh urgency this year by the haunting presence of two ‘Ash Angels’ a performance art project of XR Peace. 

The event began with a liturgy in Embankment Gardens. Water and ashes were blessed by Fr Joe Ryan, former Chair of Westminster Justice and Peace, and distributed ‘as a sign of repentance’ before the group processed to the MoD, led by Theresa Alessandro, director of Pax Christi. Read more…

Westminster Justice & Peace Annual Day 2015

Laudato Si’ – On Care for our Common Home

Fr Joe with J&P supporters

Fr Joe Ryan with J&P supporters

Nine  years after  Columban theologian Sean McDonagh first addressed the Diocesan Justice and Peace Commission he returned to give a wonderfully enriching overview of Pope Francis’s letter, Laudato Si’.  Over seventy people from across the diocese attended the occasion at St John Vianney Parish Centre In Tottenham, as Father Sean rolled out gem after gem of the encyclical, published in May, with illustrations from his own observations and experiences of over 40 years speaking out for the environment.  Continue reading →