U.S. bishops, Cardinal Tobin pray for peace following Hamas’ attack on Israel
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, and the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops are joining Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and all the Ordinaries of the Holy Land calling for a day of fasting, abstinence, and prayer on Oct. 17.
The Ordinaries are calling for prayers for peace following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
On Wednesday, Oct. 11, Cardinal Pizzaballa called for the faithful to set aside the day on Oct. 17 for fasting, abstinence, and prayer.
“We ask that on Tuesday, Oct. 17, everyone hold a day of fasting, abstinence, and prayer. Let us organize prayer times with Eucharistic adoration and with the recitation of the Rosary to Our Blessed Virgin Mary,” he said. “This is the way we all come together despite everything, and unite collectively in prayer, to deliver to God the Father our thirst for peace, justice, and reconciliation.”
On Friday, Cardinal Tobin said: “Let us join with our sisters and brothers in the Holy Land and throughout the world in fervent, heartfelt prayer for peace, justice, and reconciliation. Let us work tirelessly to make peace with justice a reality in our hearts, our communities, and among all nations and peoples.”
In a message issued on Oct. 8, just hours after Israel formally declared war on the Islamist militant group Hamas, Bishop David J. Malloy of Rockford, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, called for prayers for peace in the Holy Land and decried the “continued tensions and violence that erupted into warfare between Gaza and Israel.”
On Oct. 7, Hamas militants launched a surprise attack in southern Israel with missiles and a ground invasion during which an estimated 700 Israeli soldiers and citizens were killed, while dozens others were taken hostage and brought to Gaza. Thousands of people in Palestinian territories were injured and an estimated 400 others are now dead from Israel’s retaliation, including airstrikes that began hours following the Hamas attack.
In his statement, Cardinal Pizzaballa said: “The pain and dismay at what is happening is great. Once again we find ourselves in the midst of a political and military crisis. We have suddenly been catapulted into a sea of unprecedented violence. The hatred, which we have unfortunately already been experiencing for too long, will increase even more, and the ensuing spiral of violence will create more destruction. Everything seems to speak of death. Yet, in this time of sorrow and dismay, we do not want to remain helpless. We cannot let death and its sting (1 Cor 15:55) be the only word we hear.”
Almost 50 years to the day of the launch of the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, once again war is spilling out in the Holy Land, said Bishop Malloy. “With it brings the mounting casualties and hostilities unfolding on all sides, and increased threats to the Status Quo of the Holy Places among Jews, Muslims, and Christians further dimming any hope for peace.”
According to the World Jewish Congress, the United States is home to at least 5.7 million Jews, and its Jewish population is second only to Israel, which has more than 6.3 million Jews. With about 1.9 million Jews, New York City is home to the largest Jewish population in the U.S.
Following the public Angelus prayer last Sunday, Pope Francis said he is following “with apprehension and sorrow,” the situation in Israel, “where violence has erupted even more ferociously, causing hundreds of deaths and injuries.”
“Please stop the attacks and the weapons, and understand that terrorism and war do not lead to any solution, but only to the death and suffering of so many innocent people,” he said. “War is always a defeat! Every war is a defeat!”
Maria Wiering, senior writer for OSV News, contributed to this report.
Featured image: Smoke rises following Israeli strikes in Gaza, Oct. 7, 2023. The strikes were in retaliation after Hamas breached Israeli security along the Gaza border at dawn and entered border communities amidst a barrage of over 2,000 rockets that reached into Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv. (OSV News photo/Mohammed Salem, Reuters)
