By Barb Arland-Fye
Editorial
We agonize with each news report of hungry Gazans dying as they approach food aid sites in their war-weary Palestinian Territory but tell ourselves we are helpless to respond from afar. Throwing our hands up in despair is not an option. Matthew reminds us of Christ’s teaching: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me … ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me’” (Matt 25:35, 40).
We are not going to eliminate hunger overnight — in Gaza or anywhere else around the globe where people are suffering from food deprivation because of war, conflict, poverty, natural or human-made disasters. However, collectively we can transform helplessness to hopefulness by working to guarantee the sacred dignity of the individual, the foundational principle of Catholic Social Teaching.
In his 1961 encyclical Mater Et Magistra (On Christianity and Social Progress), St. John XXIII identified the three stages by which we apply Catholic Social Teaching in the world:
“… First, one reviews the concrete situation; secondly, one forms a judgment on it in the light of these same (social) principles; thirdly, one decides what in the circumstances can and should be done to implement these principles. These are the three stages that are usually expressed in the three terms: look, judge, act” (No. 236).
Let’s consider this process in our response to the war that Israel’s prime minister and military are waging in Gaza in retaliation for Hamas’ attack on southern Israel, Oct. 7, 2023. “Militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostage” (The Guardian, https://tinyurl.com/fy5ptcjy). In the nearly two years since then, Gazan civilians — children, women and men — have paid an unconscionable price of death, catastrophic injury, repeated relocation and severe hunger.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his military leaders insist that they are targeting Hamas, the governing authority in Gaza and not the Gazan civilians. The Israeli government disputes media reports about the number of people killed while seeking food at aid sites. Who is telling the truth? Our task is to “look,” to read credible sources on the Israel-Hamas war and its impacts, such as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (usccb.org/) and Vatican News (vaticannews.va).
Pope Leo XIV recently spoke by phone, separately, with Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, president of the State of Palestine, Vatican News reported. In both calls, the Holy Father appealed for an end to the suffering, repeated his call for a ceasefire and an end to the war.
In his call with Netanyahu, Pope Leo “again expressed his concern about the tragic humanitarian situation of the population of Gaza, whose children, elderly, and sick are paying an agonizing price” (Vatican News).
“Since May aid has been largely distributed by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in place of the traditional UN-led system,” The Guardian reports. “Food has become scarce, and very expensive, since Israel imposed a blockade on 2 March. The UN has said that as of 13 July, 875 people had been killed in recent weeks trying to get food, including 674 in the vicinity of GHF sites. The remaining 201 victims were killed on the routes or close to aid convoys run by the UN or its partners” (https://tinyurl.com/fy5ptcjy).
During the call with Abbas, “the Holy Father repeated his appeal for International Humanitarian Law to be fully respected, emphasizing in particular the obligation to protect civilians and sacred sites, the prohibition of the indiscriminate use of force and of the forced transfer of the population,” Vatican News reported, citing a Holy See Press Office statement.
Our judgment of the situation, based on our reading, and prayer, leads to the third stage of applying Catholic social teaching — taking action. We owe it to our suffering brothers and sisters in Gaza to call, email or write to members of Congress (congress.gov) and President Trump (whitehouse.gov), urging them to insist that Netanyahu and his military force immediately provide safe, unrestricted delivery of food aid to Gazans. The current arrangement appears to be failing miserably.
We ought to insist that our government, whom Netanyahu depends on for military aid, make any aid to Israel contingent on concrete, measurable peacemaking efforts. Our government must insist that Arab leaders convince Hamas to release all of the remaining hostages (including the dead) and make compromises with Israel that lead to peace. There is no trust between the warring sides, but that’s why we need to step up our prayers; with prayer, all things are possible.
Barb Arland-Fye, Editor
arland-fye@davenportdiocese.org
