Bethlehem’s mayor has met Pope Leo XIV to deliver a stark account of the plight of Christians in the Holy Land and to appeal for urgent intervention to stop the war in Gaza.
Maher Nicola Canawati, appointed mayor in May, greeted the Holy Father at the end of the Wednesday General Audience in St Peter’s Square, where he invited the Pope to visit Gaza and described the hardships endured by his people. He said the Pope assured him of his closeness and told him, “My heart is in Gaza, my heart is with you.”
The encounter came as part of a European tour undertaken by Canawati to raise awareness of the devastating impact of the war on Gaza and the West Bank, as well as the exodus of Christians from the region. According to Palestinian authorities, the conflict has already claimed around 70,000 lives, including some 20,000 children.
The mayor spoke of a community under pressure. Bethlehem, once a city of 37 square kilometres, has been hemmed in by settlements and the separation barrier, which has cut it off from Jerusalem. Movement is choked by more than a hundred checkpoints, while water is rationed, with some parts of the city enduring weeks without supply.
The collapse of tourism and pilgrimage has also had a devastating effect on the economy. Bethlehem, which once thrived on pilgrims and visitors to the Church of the Nativity, now has all 84 of its hotels closed, along with the souvenir shops and workshops that once produced olive wood carvings, mother-of-pearl, and jewellery. Unemployment has surged from 14 to 65 per cent, with many families unable to service loans or even put food on the table.
Christians, he said, are continuing to emigrate in large numbers. In the past year alone, over a thousand received approval to leave for North America and Europe. “It breaks my heart for anybody to leave Bethlehem,” Canawati said.
He explained that while the Palestinian authorities have long upheld the rule that the mayor of Bethlehem must be Christian to safeguard the community, there are now only about 170,000 Palestinian Christians left in the Holy Land, while more than four million live abroad.
The mayor described the destruction in Gaza as “genocide” and accused Israel of pursuing expansionist ambitions by continuing to establish new settlements during the war. He said medical personnel, churches, mosques, the press, and humanitarian convoys had all come under attack, leaving many people dead, displaced, or destitute. “People are being bombarded and killed, displaced, faced with hunger from one of the top militaries in the world,” he said.
Father Ibrahim Faltas, a Franciscan friar with the Custody of the Holy Land, also met Pope Leo at the general audience and said he has never known a more desperate situation in nearly four decades in the region. “Everything is closed, and many Christians are leaving,” he said, adding that “it is really an inhumane situation … worse than in the past at all levels.”
Both Canawati and Fr Faltas called for an immediate ceasefire and a return to negotiations on a two-state solution, which the Holy See has long regarded as the only path to a just and lasting peace. Pope Leo, they said, has shown deep concern for the suffering of all peoples in the region and has assured them that the Church is doing all it can to assist.
(Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP and Vatican media)
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