{"id":287806,"date":"2025-04-22T17:51:05","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T17:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/22\/who-is-the-dean-of-the-college-of-cardinals-its-not-ralph-fiennes\/"},"modified":"2025-04-22T17:51:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T17:51:06","slug":"who-is-the-dean-of-the-college-of-cardinals-its-not-ralph-fiennes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/22\/who-is-the-dean-of-the-college-of-cardinals-its-not-ralph-fiennes\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is the dean of the College of Cardinals? (It\u2019s not Ralph Fiennes.)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Who<\/div>


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Even as Pope Francis was hospitalized in the last months of his life, he still occasionally kept up what had been a near-nightly ritual: calling the hundreds of Palestinian Christians huddling in the only Roman Catholic church in the war-torn Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n

Amid fear and bombardment, the Rev. Gabriel Romanelli, the Argentine parish priest at Holy Family Church in Gaza City, had received a call from Francis almost every evening last year to check in on the well-being of his flock in the devastated enclave.<\/p>\n

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It was an unusual amount of time for the spiritual leader of more than one billion Catholics to spend with such a small community. But Francis had long shown particular sympathy for Palestinian suffering, frequently calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The video calls generally lasted for a few minutes, Father Romanelli said. He said that the calls had been less frequent after the pope became ill, but that they remained important for members of the community. Francis would inquire about the situation at the church, and Palestinians who had sought shelter there would ask for a blessing or voice a message that they hoped he would convey to world leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe evenings became known as the pope\u2019s time,\u201d Father Romanelli said. \u201cPeople would gather, even the young or teenagers, to see him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Holding up a phone for the Rev. Gabriel Romanelli during a video call with Pope Francis in December.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Omar Al-Qattaa\/Agence France-Presse \u2014 Getty Images<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Only a few hundred Palestinian Christians live in Gaza, which has been devastated by Israel\u2019s military campaign against Hamas. Most of them are sheltering in two churches in Gaza City \u2014 the Catholic one and another that is Orthodox \u2014 hoping for safety within their walls. At least some have lost their homes in Israeli bombing.<\/p>\n

During a war that Palestinian health officials say claimed the lives of more than 50,000 people in Gaza and in which telecommunications blackouts occasionally left the enclave mostly cut off from the rest of the world, the direct connection with Francis felt \u201cexistential,\u201d Father Romanelli said.<\/p>\n

The pope\u2019s death, he said, \u201cis very hard for us \u2014 for me, and also for the community, because we used to hear his voice every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Francis was an outspoken opponent of the conflict, repeatedly calling for a cease-fire and denouncing the humanitarian crisis in the enclave. He also met with the families of Israelis taken hostage by Hamas in the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack that killed 1,200 people and ignited the war.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmong them are also many children; may they return to their families!\u201d he said in a November 2023 address<\/a>, referring to the more than 250 captives seized by Hamas.<\/p>\n

In his final Easter sermon, which Archbishop Diego Ravelli delivered on the day before the pope\u2019s death, Francis urged all sides in the war to \u201ccall a cease-fire, release the hostages and come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Only a few hundred Palestinian Christians live in Gaza, which has been devastated by Israel\u2019s military campaign against Hamas.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Omar Al-Qattaa\/Agence France-Presse \u2014 Getty Images<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Francis\u2019 sympathy for the Palestinian cause predated the war. In 2014, he visited Israel and the occupied West Bank, where he called for a \u201csovereign homeland\u201d for Palestinians. He also became the first pontiff to refer to the occupied territory as \u201cthe State of Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

During that trip, Francis made an unexpected stop<\/a> at the Israeli-built separation wall that runs outside the Palestinian city of Bethlehem. Palestinians revile the <\/span>barrier as emblematic of the tight restrictions they endure under Israeli rule, while Israelis view it as an essential security measure.<\/p>\n

Touching his forehead to the wall, Francis prayed, his head resting near where someone had spray-painted: \u201cPope, we need some 1 to speak about justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe image of him standing next to the wall and praying will forever be engraved in our memories,\u201d Munther Isaac, a Palestinian Christian pastor in Bethlehem, wrote on social media on Monday.<\/p>\n

The pontiff\u2019s empathy for Palestinian suffering occasionally put him at odds with Israel\u2019s government. After Francis appeared to label Israeli airstrikes in Gaza as \u201ccruelty\u201d in an address last December, the Israeli foreign ministry accused him of ignoring<\/a> \u201cthe true and factual context of Israel\u2019s fight against jihadist terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Francis\u2019 death, Isaac Herzog, Israel\u2019s largely ceremonial president, issued a statement mourning the religious leader. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel did not comment, and a spokesman for Mr. Netanyahu declined to say whether the prime minister would attend the pope\u2019s funeral on Saturday, which falls on the Jewish Sabbath.<\/p>\n

Ibrahim Jahshan, an Orthodox Christian from Gaza City, said Francis\u2019 death was a loss for all Palestinians regardless of their faith. He said many in Gaza\u2019s Christian community felt they had known him \u201cas both a pope and a human being.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us will miss him,\u201d Mr. Jahshan said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even as Pope Francis was hospitalized in the last months of his life, he still occasionally kept up what had been a near-nightly ritual: calling the hundreds of Palestinian Christians huddling in the only Roman Catholic church in the war-torn Gaza Strip. Amid fear and bombardment, the Rev. Gabriel Romanelli, the Argentine parish priest at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/04\/22\/multimedia\/22pope-francis-dean-cardinals-hwlt\/22pope-francis-dean-cardinals-hwlt-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[223889,14983,44757,193658,18714,180024,164769],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287806"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":287808,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287806\/revisions\/287808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}