Madonna’s ‘Like a Prayer’ for Pope Leo: Go to Gaza Before It’s Too Late
The Queen of Pop – and distant cousin to the pontiff – pleads with Pope Leo to bring his light to Gaza’s children, echoing a call first raised here weeks ago.
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It’s not every day that Madonna — yes, that Madonna — makes a public appeal to the Pope.
But on Monday, the Queen of Pop took to Instagram, urging Pope Leo to visit Gaza and “bring your light to the children before it’s too late.”
As a mother, she said she cannot bear to watch Gaza’s children suffer and noted that Leo is the only one who “cannot be denied entry” into the blockaded strip.
Incredibly, this megastar isn’t just speaking as a concerned celebrity — genealogists discovered Madonna is actually a distant cousin of Pope Leo.
Her impassioned plea comes amid a rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis.
International monitors warn Gaza is facing “critical” hunger and that famine is “imminent” in parts of the territory after nearly two years of war.
Madonna argued that politics alone can’t solve this tragedy: “Only consciousness can. Therefore I am reaching out to a Man of God,” she wrote.
Some might chuckle at the Like a Virgin singer lobbying the Vatican, but the gravity of her message transcends any irony. For one thing, Madonna’s post to her 20 million followers means this cause is now echoing far beyond Catholic circles.
The world’s original Material Girl now finds herself acting as a voice for the voiceless — a sign of how urgent and universal this appeal has become.
So far, the Vatican has yet to comment on Madonna’s request (nor, for the record, on the open letter I published here two weeks ago urging the same action).
Pope Leo has spoken out about Gaza’s suffering — just last week he told young pilgrims, “We are with the young people of Gaza”— but he hasn’t committed to an on-the-ground visit.
A visit to Gaza, inspired in part by a pop star’s heartfelt prayer, would be a bold testament to a faith that does justice.
It sounds like a long shot — but then again, so did a Madonna-Pope family connection.
In an age of unprecedented crises, perhaps it’s these unlikely alliances that can light the path forward.
Thank you, Christopher, for your thoughtful reporting and heartfelt insights into the pope of the Vatican roll in our history. I so look forward to your daily reporting. Keep up the good work.
Good for Madonna to make such an urgent appeal to Pope Leo. Now is the time for all people of good will to act together, as one, united against those forces that rip us apart and hasten fear’s ultimate end - the rigor mortis of the spirit.
Let us not die to the tragedies unfolding now before us in Gaza, Ukraine, North Korea, Tibet, and so many other places and people hurting, starving, fearing, dying because a few - and it’s always only a few - whose greed for power and prestige deny them/us the life they/we were given to freely live.