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January 14, 2009

Polemics about Gaza call papal Holy Land visit into question

by Luigi Sandri
Ecumenical News International

ROME ― Pope Benedict XVI has called for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, warning of “damage and suffering for the civilian population,” while controversy has broken out over a Vatican cardinal’s remarks comparing Gaza to a concentration camp.

“Military options are no solution and violence, wherever it comes from and whatever form it takes, must be firmly condemned,” Pope Benedict said on Jan. 8 at the Vatican as he engaged in his yearly address to diplomats accredited to the Holy See.

The pontiff expressed the hope that “with the decisive commitment of the international community, the cease-fire in the Gaza strip will be re-established, and that negotiations for peace will resume.”

Separately, Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, has dismissed criticism by Israel of remarks he made saying that the Gaza Strip “more and more ... resembles a concentration camp.”

Igal Palmor, the spokesperson of Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs, had denounced Martino’s comments, made to an Italian newspaper. “The cardinal speaks as Hamas does,” said Palmor, referring to the Islamic Resistance Movement that rules the Gaza Strip and from there supports the targeting of missiles on cities in southern Israel.

In an interview with the Rome-based La Repubblica newspaper about Palmor’s criticism, Martino said, “They can say what they want, but the situation in Gaza is terrible.”

The cardinal said he condemned both parties in the present confrontation ― “Israel, when so many children are killed, and UN schools bombarded in Gaza, and Hamas when it launches rockets against Israel.”

Pope Benedict in his comments made no mention of hopes for a papal visit to the Holy Land. Vatican spokesperson Federico Lombardi said in November that “diplomatic contacts” were being held “to study the possibility of a pilgrimage of the pontiff during 2009.”

Church sources who requested anonymity told Ecumenical News International on Jan. 9 that the events in Gaza had “complicated” preparations for a visit, and that until now no decision had been taken.

Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodriguez Maradiaga, archbishop of Tegucigalpa in Honduras, and president of Caritas Internationalis, a grouping of Catholic agencies, said, “War cannot be justified by either Israel or Hamas. Arguments over proportionality are repugnant when we are talking about the lives of innocent children.”