“In our convent we also felt the effects of the explosion at the al Ahli hospital, we are close to the affected area. The people we host are afraid that it could happen to us too,” recount the Missionaries of Charity, the nuns of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, present in Gaza for 50 years. They share their plight with AsiaNews through our contact with Fr. Francis Xavier, Franciscan, Indian Commissioner of the Holy Land.
“I celebrate the morning Mass at the Holy Sepulchre and the nuns of Mother Teresa also participate,” he says. ”In their convent in Jerusalem, there are two Indian nuns, one European and one local. Yesterday, after this celebration, in the Old City, I came to me and asked for help, telling us how extremely serious the situation in Gaza is.”
“We are not worried about ourselves – they told Fr. Francis Xavier – but for disabled children and elderly people bedridden with bedsores. And also for the 600 people who took refuge in our convent after losing their homes in recent days due to the bombings. Where will they go now?”
“Even if my body is in Jerusalem – concludes the Indian Commissioner of the Holy Land – my heart and my mind are in Gaza. May the Prince of Peace give peace to this Earth.”
Mother Teresa’s nuns have been present in Gaza since February 1973. A presence marked from the beginning by sharing the suffering of this tormented land.