&w=3840&q=100)
Pope Francis's last gift: Popemobile to become health clinic for Gaza
A popemobile, formerly used by Pope Francis, is being converted into a mobile healthcare unit for children in Gaza, the Vatican's official media outlet said. As one of his last wishes before death, Pope Francis designated the popemobile from his 2014 pilgrimage of the Holy Lands to the Catholic aid organisation Caritas Jerusalem to address the severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Caritas is transforming the vehicle into a mobile health station by equipping it with medical devices for examination and treatment of children.
According to Caritas, once safe access to Gaza becomes possible, the wheeled clinic, staffed with physicians and medical personnel, will be deployed to communities without functioning healthcare facilities.
The Pope specifically requested that the vehicle serve injured and malnourished children in the conflict-ravaged Palestinian territory.
The war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip has killed over 15,000 children and displaced nearly one million people since the beginning in October 2023, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef). The UN children's agency reports that Israel has prevented humanitarian assistance from entering Gaza for more than two months, as essential supplies, including food, clean water, and medicine, reach dangerously low levels.
During his papacy, Pope Francis frequently made passionate statements on the Gaza war, describing the humanitarian conditions in the territory as 'shameful'. In his last Easter Sunday address, he called for all parties to implement a ceasefire and highlighted the suffering of both Palestinians and Israelis.
During 18 months of war, Pope Francis had been making nightly calls to the Holy Family Church – Gaza's only Catholic church – to check on their well-being.
Pope Francis dies after long illness
Francis, the first Latin American and first Jesuit pope, died Easter Monday at age 88 after suffering a stroke while recovering at home from pneumonia. Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, held the position of the 266th pontiff of the Catholic Church. During his leadership, Pope Francis publicly supported LGBTQIA+ individuals' rights, stressed the importance of tackling climate change, addressed the worldwide refugee situation, and urged the Church to ask for forgiveness for its involvement in the 'scourge' of child sexual abuse.
Conclave to elect new pope to begin May 7
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
10 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
At least 16 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, say health officials
Sixteen Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military in Gaza on Friday, according to local health authorities, as a US- and Israeli-backed group said it had handed out aid in the enclave after earlier saying that its distribution sites were closed. The military had no immediate comment on the reports of deaths in war-shattered Gaza. Health authorities said strikes had killed people in Gaza's Jabalia, Tuffah and Khan Younis areas. Witnesses and medics told Reuters that Israeli planes and tanks had intensified strikes on Jabalia and nearby Beit Hanoun since the early hours. The Israeli military issued evacuation orders to residents of certain blocks in northern Gaza on Friday, spokesperson Avichay Adraee posted on X. The U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) told Reuters by email it had delivered aid on Friday, despite earlier announcing on its official Facebook page that its distribution sites were closed until further notice and that people should stay away from the sites "for their safety" after a series of deadly shootings. The GHF opened two sites in southern Gaza on Thursday after closing all of its centres the previous day in the wake of shootings in the vicinity of its operations. It has so far operated four distribution centres. The organisation bypasses traditional relief agencies and has been criticised by humanitarian organisations, including the United Nations, for alleged lack of neutrality, which it denies. Palestinians collecting aid from GHF sites told Reuters that there was no clear distribution system, describing the process as disorganised and chaotic. Footage released this week by the organisation has shown similar scenes at one of its sites. GHF halted distributions on Wednesday and said it was pressing Israeli forces to improve civilian safety beyond the perimeter of its operations after dozens of Palestinians were shot dead near the Rafah site over three consecutive days. The Israeli military said on Sunday and Monday that its soldiers had fired warning shots. On Tuesday, it said, forces also fired warning shots before firing towards Palestinians that it said were advancing towards troops. GHF has said that aid was safely handed out from its sites without any incident. Military spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote on X on Friday that Palestinians would have 'free movement' to aid distribution sites between 06:00 and 18:00, but warned that outside those hours the area would be a 'closed military zone' and movement would pose a significant risk to life. Israel has re-intensified an offensive against Gaza's dominant Hamas militant group since breaking a two-month-old ceasefire in March in a war triggered by Hamas' cross-border attack on October 7, 2023.
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Hindustan Times
A judge tells federal agencies they can't enforce anti-trans bias policies against Catholic groups
BISMARCK, N.D. — Two federal agencies cannot punish Catholic employers and health care providers if they refuse for religious reasons to provide gender-affirming care to transgender patients or won't provide health insurance coverage for such care to their workers, a federal judge ruled Thursday. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Peter Welte, the chief federal judge in North Dakota, bars the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from enforcing a health care rule it imposed in 2024 under Democratic President Joe Biden. The rule said that existing policies against sex discrimination covered discrimination based on gender identity, so that health care providers risked losing federal funds if they refused to provide gender-affirming care. Welte also barred the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from telling employers that a failure to have health plans cover gender-affirming care for their workers would represent discrimination based on sex that could lead to a lawsuit against them and penalties. The judge rejected a request from an order of nuns, two Catholic homes and the Catholic Benefits Association, which represents employers, to impose similar bans on each agency covering abortion and fertility treatments Catholic organizations consider immoral. He said those claims were 'underdeveloped' and not ready for court review. But he concluded that allowing the two agencies to enforce policies on gender-affirming care or health coverage for it would restrict employers' and health care providers' ability to live out their religious beliefs, violating a 1992 federal law meant to provide broad protections for religious freedoms. The HHS rule had a provision allowing the agency to make case-by-case exceptions based on religious beliefs, but Welte said that would be insufficient. 'The case-by-case exemption procedure leaves religious organizations unable to predict their legal exposure without furthering any compelling antidiscrimination interests,' wrote Welte, who is based in Fargo. The two agencies did not immediately respond to email messages seeking comment Thursday. The Catholic Benefits Association serves more than 9,000 employers and about 164,000 employees enrolled in member health plans, according to its website. The group, founded in 2013, says it 'advocates for and litigates in defense of our members' First Amendment rights to provide employee benefits and a work environment that is consistent with the Catholic faith.' The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects religious freedoms. Association General Counsel Martin Nussbaum welcomed the ruling, saying the organization's members 'want to do the right thing in their health plan and in their medical services that they provide for those medical providers, and this gives them protection to doing that.' And he said the judge's ruling suggests there are no mandates from the federal government on abortion or fertility treatments, so there is 'no need to provide protection.' The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that the Civil Rights Act's protections against discrimination based on sex also cover anti-LGBTQ bias in employment. The landmark 1964 act doesn't have specific provisions dealing with bias based on sexual orientation or gender identity. But courts also have intervened to limit how far the federal government can go in combating anti-LGBTQ discrimination when religious organizations or employers with religious beliefs against LGBTQ rights are involved. Both the HHS rule and the EEOC's policy on sex discrimination have their roots in efforts by President Barack Obama to protect LGBTQ rights in 2016, in his last year in office. When President Donald Trump began his second term in January, he issued an order saying the federal government would not recognize transgender people's gender identities. In April, two employees said the EEOC was classifying all new gender identity-related discrimination cases as its lowest priority, essentially putting them on indefinite hold. The 2024 HHS rule also covered bias based on 'pregnancy or related conditions," and the Catholic health care providers argued that they might face losing federal funds if they refused to perform abortions, in line with Catholic opposition to abortion. But HHS said the rule wouldn't have forced them to perform abortions or provide health coverage for abortions — only that it couldn't refuse to care for someone because they'd had one, according to Welte. Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas.
Mint
2 days ago
- Mint
Israel-Backed Gaza Aid Group Suspends Operations for Second Day
An Israel- and US-backed mechanism to distribute food in Gaza suspended operations for a second day following a series of deadly incidents near its sites that drew international criticism. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a Swiss-based nonprofit, launched in Gaza last week following a months-long Israeli blockade of the territory, and says it has handed out enough food staples for millions of meals. But the roll-out has been dogged by overcrowding and at least one incident in which Israeli forces, citing a security threat, fired toward Palestinians headed to a GHF aid center. 'The world is watching, day after day, horrifying scenes of Palestinians being shot, wounded or killed in Gaza while simply trying to eat,' Tom Fletcher, the UN humanitarian affairs chief, said in a statement urging Israel to allow his organization's aid network back into the territory. 'We must be allowed to do our jobs: We have the teams, the plan, the supplies and the experience.' UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for an independent investigation into reports that Israeli forces had killed dozens near the aid stations in Rafah. The Israeli army denied that its soldiers had shot anyone seeking aid and the GHF called the reports 'outright fabrications.' In a statement on June 2, the International Committee of the Red Cross said its hospital had received 21 dead among 179 casualties. The stations were shuttered on Wednesday and on Thursday morning 'due to ongoing maintenance and repair work,' the GHF said in a statement. It was not immediately clear when operations might resume. Gaza's 2 million Palestinians had long depended on UN relief before the Oct 7, 2023 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people. During the almost 20-month-old war — in which more than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry — UN agencies have been sidelined by Israel, which accuses them of being too close to the US-designated terrorist group. Some of Israel's closest European allies, including Germany, the UK and France, have are increasingly critical of Israel's prosecution of the war, which has destroyed much of the coastal strip and sparked what international aid agencies say is a hunger crisis. They're considering trade sanctions and curbs on arms sales to push Israel to end the war. The UN has criticized the GHF for not being able to provide anywhere near enough food and medicine for Gaza's population and for politicizing humanitarian work. Israel, which controls Gaza's borders, argues that Hamas benefits from siphoning off UN aid. 'There is a joint effort here, both by Hamas and by the UN, which want to see the failure of these distribution centers,' Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the UN, said in an Army Radio interview on Thursday. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
