According to Father Gabriel Romanelli, the parish priest of the Church of the Holy Family in Gaza, Pope Francis has been checking up on the long-suffering people of Gaza even from his hospital bed in Rome, where he has been receiving treatment for pneumonia since February 14.

In an interview with the Vatican’s official information platform, Vatican News, Romanelli said Francis has maintained nearly daily contact with his church throughout 15 months of massacres, violence, fear and hunger in Gaza and continued to make calls to the parish during his ongoing hospitalisation. “He asked us how we were doing, how the situation was, and he sent us his blessing,” Romanelli said.

As demonstrated by his attachment to the people of Gaza, Francis believes that those who suffer and who inhabit the existential peripheries of life reflect the true face of God. It is his conviction that the logic of love and life is understood better by fixing the gaze on the poor and the forgotten of society.

As such, many Catholics and countless men and women of goodwill around the world are praying for the pope’s quick recovery and return to his mission. They are praying because they know our world can only overcome the polycrisis it is facing today under the guidance of leaders like him – leaders who are driven by a deep concern for those suffering from war, poverty and injustice; leaders who want to advance our common humanity to counter the dangerous rise of nativism, protectionism and parochial nationalism.

Francis has demonstrated his unyielding commitment to promoting coexistence and confronting global injustice many times over in the past decade.

In February 2019, for example, he signed the Abu Dhabi Declaration on “human fraternity for world peace and living together” alongside Grand Imam of al-Azhar Ahmed Al-Tayyeb.

The widely cherished document, in recognising all human beings as brothers and sisters, serves as a guide for future generations to advance a culture of mutual respect. It calls for a “culture of tolerance and of living together in peace” in the name of “all persons of good will present in every part of the world”, but especially “orphans, widows, refugees, those exiled from their homes and countries; victims of........

© Al Jazeera