'We didn't hear his voice': Gaza's churches fall silent after death of Pope Francis
Karimah Tarazi says that with the death of Pope Francis earlier this week, the churches of Gaza have fallen silent.
Tarazi's family, like hundreds of others, has been living for the past 18 months in two Gaza churches - the Holy Family Church and St Porphyrius Greek Orthodox - and is still coming to terms with the pope's absence.
The 63-year-old Palestinian spoke to Middle East Eye at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, New Jersey, where a mass for the pope was being held on Tuesday.
She said her family's homes were destroyed in October 2023 by Israeli bombardment, and her relatives have been holed up in the two churches since. Earlier that month, 17 members of her extended family were killed when the St Porphyrius church itself was struck by Israeli bombs.
The pope's daily phone calls to the parish didn't merely provide relief; they gave them the spiritual fuel to go on.
"There wasn't a day in the past year and a half that my family, who are [living] in the Holy Family and in Saint Porphyrius in Gaza, did not receive a call from him to make sure that they were okay," Tarazi told Middle East Eye.
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"This morning, I spoke to my family, and they said there was a silence today," she said,
"We didn't hear his voice," she narrated them as having said, as she held back tears.
Supporter of Palestinian rights
The Vatican announced on Monday that Pope Francis had passed away after a short illness. He was 88 years old.
Like many other churches around the world, on Tuesday, the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart held a mass for the pontiff.
Church officials told MEE that around 2,000 people attended the special ceremony in which congregants came to pay their respects and offer prayers for the pope.
Tarazi originally hails from Jerusalem, and her father, Zuhdi Labib Tarazi, was the first to represent the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) at the United Nations.
She recalled meeting Pope Francis when he was still a priest in Argentina, after her father was posted there in the early 1970s.
She was eight years old at the time and had met him along with her brother and parents.
Tarazi said that Pope Francis was not just a proponent of Palestinian rights but a person of principle and courage.
'The Pope left, and the occupation and the wall remained'
- Pastor Munther Isaac
Whereas his death has left the 1.4 billion Catholics around the world in mourning, for Palestinian Christians, his passing has left them feeling exceptionally vulnerable.
Since Israel began its war on Gaza in October 2023, conservative estimates suggest that at least 51,300 people have been killed, with at least 117,096 wounded. Reports indicate that over 80 percent of Christians in Gaza have been displaced.
Pope Francis routinely condemned Israel's war on Gaza.
In November, he appeared to support the designation of Israel's war on Gaza as a genocide.
Tarazi said it was "difficult to understand why anybody, after listening to His Holiness, would not understand the plight of Palestinians and those that follow the Christian faith".
"And it behooves me whenever I hear someone calling themselves Christian, but they cannot see us as a people, us as Palestinian Christians, Muslims, Jews, Bahai, Samaritans, Druze, all of us, We go under one name. We're all Palestinians," Tarazi said.
Likewise, Kathy O'Leary with Friends of Sabeel New Jersey/Pax Chisti, who also attended the mass in Newark, told MEE that it was Pope Francis' approach to people that distingished his leadership from others.
"I think his quiet witness with the Catholic Church [in Gaza] was probably the greatest example as advocates and activists. His simple phone call to the members of the parish, was so meaningful for them; for their morale and to give them courage and hope," O'Leary said.
O'Leary said that just the idea that someone outside cared about them meant the world to them.
'Dear friend'
In a tribute posted on social media on Tuesday, Palestinian pastor Munther Isaac said Palestinians had lost a "dear friend" who was "beloved in Palestine".
"He conveyed true compassion to Palestinians, most notably to those in Gaza during this genocide. His pastoral heart was evident in his insistence on calling the Christian community besieged in Gaza on a constant basis, even from his hospital," Isaac said.
Recounting the pope's visit to Israel's separation wall in Bethlehem, he said: "The pope left, and the occupation and the wall remained.
"But we were left with a renewed sense of hope - knowing that we are not forgotten."
In his final address on Easter Sunday, read out by an aide from the balcony of St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, Pope Francis condemned the "deplorable humanitarian situation in Gaza".
Tarazi said that one of the pope's main legacies would be his commitment to treating people with respect and dignity.
"It doesn't matter how wealthy you are, the most important thing is that we treat everybody with kindness with respect, regardless of anything they have done in their lives, or regardless of anything that they need or don't need," she said.
She said she hopes that the next pope will mirror some of his values.
"I hope the cardinals will choose someone who will continue his mission of peace and humaniy," she added.
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