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Justice & Peace Ministry
Office for Human Dignity
Diocese of Joliet
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Love of neighbor is inseparable from love for God.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1878
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Justice and Peace
Office for Human Dignity
Catholic Diocese of Joliet
Blanchette Catholic Center
16555 Weber Road
Crest Hill, IL 60403
Desk: (815) 221-6252
[email protected]
dioceseofjoliet.org/peace
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Thomas L. Garlitz, Director
Office for Human Dignity
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Caritas Jerusalem Decries Killing of Innocent Children in Gaza
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| A third day of an Israeli offensive on the Palestinian territory yesterday caused 14 deaths, including seven women and four children, local medical sources said. In only a few hours during the night of July 9 -10, the Israeli air force carried out more than 300 raids, Fides reported.
Unlike previous military campaigns, in which bombing targets were mainly police stations and government buildings in the hands of the Islamists of Hamas, this time civilian houses and buildings and refugee camp areas are being hit, according to witnesses.
While attending the semi-finals of the World Cup football match between Argentina and the Netherlands in a bar of a village in the Gaza Strip, eight victims were hit by a rocket.
Following the attacks, Egypt opened the Rafah crossing to allow wounded Palestinians to be assisted in the health facilities in the north of Sinai.
Faced with a growing number of victims and injuries -- some estimates say nearly 100 have been killed <http://time.com/2973658/israel-gaza-hamas-war-operation-protective-edge/> -- Caritas Jerusalem warns of a looming humanitarian emergency for the people of Gaza.
Through many projects and activities on the coastal strip, the organization provides support including a mobile clinic and a health center for psychological assistance for children. Often these children have artificiallimbs, amputated due to previous Israeli military operations.
Since the start of the raid, all activities have been suspended. Therefore, Caritas workers present in Gaza are preparing for emergency interventions that will only be carried out when Israeli air strikes end.
In a statement Caritas sent to Fides, it recalls that these people already live in "a tragic situation" due to an embargo they have been subjected to for 12 years, and a conflict that has lasted eight years.
The statement reaffirms "the right of Israel to live in peace and the Israelis to live in security," but states that this right can never be guaranteed "by war and aggression against innocent people."
Rather, it suggests the only way to achieve peace and security is "justice and a resolution of the conflict," which can make its way only by recognizing the Palestinian people's right to live in freedom in their own land and allowing Gaza to be open to the world.
The Israeli raids, named Operation Protective Edge, are in response to an escalation of rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas. The operation also follows a chain of events that began with the abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers last month, for which Israel blamed Hamas. (D.C.L.)
http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/41401
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Patriarch Twal: Stop human sacrifice
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 JERUSALEM - "It is not worthy of political and religious leaders to support, feed, foment revenge. Revenge calls for revenge, blood calls for blood. And innocent people who are killed, all the children killed, are victims sacrificed on the diabolical altars of hatred. We pray for the parents and families of all these young people kidnapped and killed".
With these words, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, expresses his dismay regarding the news of the sixteen-year-old Palestinian Mohammed Abu Khdeir, whose body with signs of violence was found this morning by Israeli police in a forest west of the city of Jerusalem, after the family had reported his abduction.
A targeted killing that suggests a vengeance, after the kidnapping and killing of the three Jewish boys who disappeared on June 12 and found killed on June 30 near Hebron. "The visit of Pope Francis in the Holy Land and then the prayer meeting held in the Vatican", said the Patriarch, "had fueled so many happy hopes for peace. Now, with the sacrifice of innocent young people, the cycle of violence in which we live seems to reassert its dominance with even greater ferocity. It almost seems like a reaction to stave off the hopes that had been aroused. For this we must continue to pray, to ask for the miracle of peace. Peace and forgiveness are good for everyone".
On Tuesday evening, July 1, hundreds of extremist Israeli settlers crossed the center of Jerusalem expressing their anger after the killing of the three Jewish children. This morning, in Beit Hanina and Shuffat, dozens of Palestinians clashed with Israeli police after they had spread the news of the discovery of the lifeless body of Mohammad Abu Khdeir. "There is a nation that has lived for years in mourning", says Patriarch Twal to Fides Agency, "and it is necessary to stop the perverse logic of those who discriminate among the innocent victims on one side and the other, and believe that their pain can be relieved from the pain of others. Only forgiveness calls for forgiveness".
Source : Agenzia Fides
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Prayer for Peace in the Holy Land
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God of our longing,
Remember those who wait and hope for peace.
Hear our prayer and our lament
for our brothers and sisters in Israel and Palestine.
With them, we share a common story,
set in a common homeland.
Make common also a will to forgive,
to reconcile,
to make a just peace for the sake of the ancestors,
for the sake of the children.
Open ears, eyes and hearts
And make a way toward justice
In our war-torn world.
God all merciful, you dwell in all human hearts
And the Holy Land is wherever you make your home.
Heal these broken places where prophets preached,
Where Moses and Jesus and Muhammad kept faith with you.
Be a sure support for those who work toward reconciliation
And make us all, however far away,
Steadfast in their cause.
Amen.
From: Prayer Without Borders, Catholic Relief Services, USA
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@Pontifex - TwitterMay we never talk about others behind their backs, but speak to them openly about what we think. More.
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Advocacy Issues: Respect Life - HIV/AIDS - Care of God's Creation - Health Care Reform - Housing, Hunger & Poverty - Immigration Reform - International Concerns - Labor Rights - Nonviolence - Racial Justice - Restorative Justice - Rural Life
Thomas L. Garlitz, Director of the Office for Human Dignity
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