The calls for Pope Leo to make an official humanitarian trip to Gaza started last week, after the Israeli military struck the only Catholic church there with an artillery shell, killing three people and injuring ten more. The IDF claims this was accidental, but the wonderfully-named Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa begs to differ, saying that “everybody here believes it wasn’t.” In the immediate aftermath, Pizzaballa—who’s based in Jerusalem—went to Gaza himself to meet with the wounded. When he returned, he made a remarkable statement condemning the Israeli assault, and especially the blockade that prevents the most basic food and medical supplies from reaching civilians:

Christ is not absent from Gaza. He is there—crucified in the wounded, buried under rubble and yet present in every act of mercy, every candle in the darkness, every hand extended to the suffering[...]

 

Humanitarian aid is not only necessary—it is a matter of life and death. Refusing it is not a delay, but a sentence. Every hour without food, water, medicine and shelter causes deep harm. 

 

We have seen it: Men holding out in the sun for hours in the hope of a simple meal. This is a humiliation that is hard to bear when you see it with your own eyes. It is morally unacceptable and unjustifiable. 

Cardinal Pizzaballa in Gaza. (Photo: Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.)

The Pope himself concurs, calling for a ceasefire and “an immediate end to the barbarity of war.” He’s following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Pope Francis, who reportedly called the church in Gaza almost every night, wrapped the infant Jesus in a keffiyeh in his nativity scene, and charged the IDF with “terrorism.” But many people online are now calling for Leo to go beyond mere statements and take action. “The Pope should go to Gaza and bring aid in,” says journalist Mohammad Alsaafin in a post with over 44,000 likes. “He should dare the Israelis to block him. Words, no matter how heartfelt, will not save a single starving child.” Or, as civil rights lawyer Alec Karakatsanis puts it: “The pope could board a ship with aid and sail to Gaza. With the UN declaring the final stage of famine that might be irreversible for millions, bold acts of courage by everyone in a position to do something are the only chance.”

That’s exactly right. Today, more than 100 humanitarian groups from the World Health Organization to Amnesty International say that nearly all 2.1 million residents of Gaza are facing “man-made mass starvation caused by a blockade on aid.” Even the rabidly pro-Israel Free Press has been compelled to admit the scale of “the hunger crisis in Gaza,” despite earlier calling it a “myth.” The Guardian reports that “skeletal children fill hospital wards.” When a tiny percentage of Gazans try to reach the meager food supplies Israel allows in, they’re often gunned down where they stand. For the rest, doctors on the ground describe a “wave of hunger deaths.” It’s the greatest moral horror in the world, and anyone who dares to call themselves a moral authority has a responsibility to do everything in their power to stop it. 

This is especially true for the Pope, since his own scriptures command him to take action. In the Book of James, the apostle takes a dim view of those who talk about compassion for starving people, but do nothing to actually help:

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

This is one of those inconvenient radical bits of the Bible which conservative Christians rarely touch, but the Pope of all people surely knows it. Today, if he talks about how important it is to help the people of Gaza, but doesn’t use his power to do it, millions of people will ask a similar question to the one James posed. What good is it having a Pope who can see children starving and do nothing but talk? Why would anyone listen to such a person? 

What’s more, Pope Leo is different from any previous pontiff. He’s an American from Chicago, and although he’s lived and worked in Peru for decades, he remains a U.S. citizen and taxpayer. That means the U.S. governments, Biden’s and Trump’s, that have aided and abetted this massacre at every turn are his governments. Like every American, he shares in our complicity, our national shame, and our duty to oppose the crimes of our rulers and Israel’s. A robe, a ring, and a staff can’t absolve him of that. 

There’s a precedent here, too, for how a papal aid mission could work. Last month, Greta Thunberg and a handful of incredibly courageous activists sailed their own ship, the Madleen, across the Mediterranean Sea in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade and deliver as much aid as they could to Gaza, sending out tweets and livestreams the whole time so the world could watch. In a flagrant breach of international law, the Israeli military seized their ship before it could reach its destination, and they kept the activists in insect-infested cells, subjected them to sleep deprivation, and abused them in all kinds of other ways. But that hasn’t deterred their comrades on the outside. Right now, Amazon union organizer Chris Smalls and a second group of activists are on their way across the Mediterranean on another voyage with the same goal. In all likelihood, Israel will abduct and imprison them too. But what if the third vessel was a lot bigger, and Pope Leo on it, with his heavily-armed Swiss Guards as the crew? Then things would be different, and they might very well break through. 

The bloodshed and terror in Gaza is a moment of crisis that will make or break institutions, much like slavery was in the 19th century. Universities, media networks, political parties, and nations are tearing themselves apart over it, and history will judge those who stood idly by while thousands of innocents were murdered. For its part, Catholicism is already facing a moment of existential crisis, from its anti-LGBTQ prejudice to its longstanding complicity and cover-up of sexual abuse. If the Pope breaks the blockade of Gaza, it will not make up for those past misdeeds. Nothing can. But it may show the world that the Catholic church is capable of something other than corruption and malevolence. On the other hand, if the Pope and his allies just mouth platitudes and refuse to act, people will wonder what the point of having a Pope at all is. 

So, Leo—Robert—what will it be? Will you back up your fine-sounding declarations with action? Is the papacy actually good for something, or are you nothing but empty wind? How many divisions have you?