After Doha Strike, Pope Leo Calls Gaza’s Only Parish — and Renews Demand for Ceasefire

Following Francis’s nightly calls, Leo phones Holy Family Church after pressing Israel’s president to halt the war.

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The latest installments include his decades-long friendship with Pope Francis, his closest confidant, Cardinal Tagle, his nearly three decades in Peru, his promotion of women in Vatican leadership, and the prophetic witness of his top envoy in Gaza.

On Tuesday, Pope Leo reached across war lines to Gaza’s lone Catholic parish, Holy Family Church.

In a tweet shared by the parish pastor, Fr. Gabriel Romanelli said the pope “was able to communicate with us, asked how we were and how the situation was, sent his blessing, and prayed for us and for peace.”

The gesture also carries a poignant continuity. Pope Francis, in the last eighteen months of his life, famously phoned Holy Family Parish almost every night. His consistency gave Gaza’s beleaguered Catholic community a sense of daily presence from the wider Church.

Pope Leo’s call signals that this line of closeness has not been severed — it has been renewed.

The call is not an isolated gesture. It comes just days after Pope Leo spoke to Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the Vatican and pressed him directly for an immediate ceasefire, unhindered humanitarian access, the release of hostages, and a revived path to two states.

That unusually specific language from the Vatican shows Leo is moving beyond general appeals and into concrete demands.

The moment could not be more urgent.

Following Israel’s unprecedented strike in Doha this morning, Pope Leo called the situation “very serious,” pledging both prayer and action.

Taken together, the pope’s actions show a consistent pattern: proximity to victims, pressure on leaders, and concrete political demands.

He calls Gaza to be close to the wounded and calls Jerusalem to demand accountability. This is papal diplomacy at its sharpest edge.