Tag: Israel-Hamas War

The world is rightly celebrating the recently announced ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and anxiously waiting to see if the agreement holds.

On 19 January, crowds gathered in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, celebrating the release of Israeli hostages, people crying with joy watching live feed from their road to freedom.

As the 15-month devastating war reached a point of a ceasefire 15 January, US Bishop A Elias Zaidan of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon expressed hope and optimism following the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, viewing it as a significant step toward peace in a region long marred by violence.

As news spread about a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, Catholic leaders in the region expressed cautious optimism, while also stressing the importance of peace and addressing humanitarian concerns.

After more than a year of war and thousands killed or wounded, negotiators representing Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal.

On the one-year anniversary of the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, Pope Francis expressed his solidarity with all those suffering because of conflicts throughout the Middle East, urged Christians to be peacemakers and warned warmongers they will face God's judgment.

Since Hamas' attack on Israel 7 October, 2023, and the immediate start of the Israel-Hamas war, Pope Francis has provided daily spiritual solace to Gaza Strip's only Catholic parish.

Maronite Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay has called on all faithful to pray for peace, as Israel began a “targeted ground operation” in southern Lebanon on 1 October, following airstrikes that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and other senior commanders in a Beirut bunker on 27 September.

This year’s Social Justice Statement, "Truth and Peace: A Gospel Word in a Violent World," comes at a time when belief, truth and goodness are coming apart, and ideologies and conspiracies rush in to fill the void. Truth claims have taken on a new gravity in our time, writes Associate Professor Joel Hodge.

Thousands of people have flocked to the Maronite Patriarchal headquarters in Bkerke for the beatification of the 17th century Maronite Patriarch, Estephan Douaihy. Among them, numerous Lebanese Australians. They had travelled specifically for the occasion, despite official Australian travel warnings because of the volatile conflict in the south, writes Deacon Ghassan Nakhoul.

If a religious school seeks to expel a staff member at odds with the school’s belief, the Federal Labor Government would see the school penalised. Yet the Labor Party itself is run on just this principle—as Fatima Payman found out when she tried to follow her own convictions, writes Margaret Chambers from the Institute of Public Affairs.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem issued a strong condemnation after the Israeli military targeted a Catholic school in Gaza that killed four people, including a senior Hamas official. In a statement published 7 July, the patriarchate said it was monitoring reports of a strike on Holy Family School, which "has, since the beginning of the war, been a place of refuge for hundreds of civilians."