Gaza Strip: p. Romanelli (parish priest), "fragile truce but seems to hold. Chain of prayer for peace". The parish reopens to the activities

"It is fragile but it seems to hold the truce here in the Gaza Strip. Today for the first time since the beginning, last Tuesday, of fighting between Israeli forces and Islamic Jihad, we have resumed our pastoral activities. Scouts and other young people gathered to play and spend a few hours of leisure really necessary to recover from such violence ”. From Gaza to speak to the Sir is the pastor of the local Latin parish, (just under 120 Catholics out of two million inhabitants), dedicated to the Holy Family, Father Gabriel Romanelli.

"What, in other places, could be an ordinary thing, like carrying out an activity with the parishioners, here in Gaza takes on the contours of the extraordinary – tells the parish priest of Argentine origins -. It did not seem real to our children and young people to be able to leave home and go here to the clubs and the parish courtyard to play football, sing or dance. "

"It was nice to see and hear the scouts sing a hymn to Saint Joseph, the patron saint of their group. But we thank God for this gift and continue to pray for reconciliation between the two peoples and for the bloody Middle East. We continue to ask God for the gift of peace – it is the appeal of Father Gabriel – as in a chain of prayer that embraces all those who live in places and theaters of war ”. This evening in the parish the parish priest and the other religious will recite the Rosary and will animate a Eucharistic adoration to remember all the victims of the wars. The ceasefire agreement came into force yesterday in the Gaza Strip after two days of clashes that killed at least 34 people in the Palestinian enclave.