Heart and Soul

When as a young missionary priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli was told to leave his native Argentina and go and work in the Middle East, he went – out of a passion for bringing Christ to the people wherever he was called. After a stint in the West Bank, he became Gaza’s only Catholic parish priest at the Holy Family Church in Gaza City. Life in the territory was never easy – but it became extraordinarily challenging after the Hamas attack on Israel on 7th October 2023.

In this edition of his occasional series, The Right Thing, Mike Wooldridge finds out what motivated Fr Romanelli to return to his flock after the attack and stay with them through the dangers and hardships of the devastating war that followed the Hamas attack. On the day of the assault, he was actually in Bethlehem in the West Bank – and it took him nearly seven months to obtain permission from the Israeli authorities to go back to Gaza.

Back at his parish, Fr Romanelli and the community were sustained by daily phone calls from Pope Francis. Yet the danger was real: Father Romanelli has himself been injured, and dozens of Christians have died during the conflict. He talks about the consequences of the bombardment and lack off medical care in the war zone.

Yet, even though he was offered opportunities to leave Gaza more than once, he has never felt tempted to do so: his place, he says, is with his Christian brothers and sisters in Gaza.