04/06/2026
"A distressing message from our brothers and sisters in Christ in the Holy Land."
Bishop Phonsie has issued the following statement after receiving correspondence from Christian leaders in Palestine describing the challenges facing their communities and appealing for solidarity from Christians throughout the world:
I have recently received a deeply distressing communication from our brothers and sisters in Christ in the Holy Land. Their message is not one of political ideology but of suffering, fear and despair. They write of communities being uprooted, families being driven from their lands, and a Christian presence that has endured since the time of Christ being placed under ever-increasing pressure.
They speak of a world that appears content to look away.
They tell of the relentless expansion of Israeli settlements throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories and of the billions of shekels invested by the Israeli Government in a project that continues to alter the demographic and cultural reality of the land. They describe the growth of settler violence, attacks on Palestinian communities, the seizure of land, restrictions on movement and the gradual erosion of the rights and dignity of those who have lived there for generations.
These concerns echo those repeatedly raised by His Beatitude Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, who has spoken of the growing pressures facing Christian communities, warned of the dangers posed by extremism and violence, and reminded the world that the Christians of the Holy Land are the "living stones" of the Church. He has warned that in some places power appears to have replaced rights and has repeatedly called for the protection of the dignity of all people living in the land made holy by the life of Christ.
Most troubling of all is the sense of abandonment expressed by Palestinian Christians themselves. These are not distant observers. They are our brothers and sisters in Christ. They are descendants of some of the oldest Christian communities in the world. Yet many now fear that their continued presence in the Holy Land is under threat.
The humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza has shocked the conscience of humanity. Cardinal Pizzaballa himself, after visiting Gaza, described the denial of essential humanitarian assistance as morally unacceptable and unjustifiable, reminding the world that access to food, water, medicine and shelter is a matter of life and death.
The Diocese of Waterford & Lismore has long enjoyed a special bond with the Christians of the Holy Land. In 2020, during efforts to foster links between Waterford and Ramallah, I exchanged correspondence with Bishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, now Cardinal Pizzaballa and Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. In those letters, written before the current conflict, we assured one another of our prayers and support for the people entrusted to our pastoral care.
Today, as we receive this distressing appeal from our brothers and sisters in Christ in the Holy Land, that promise of prayer takes on an even deeper significance. The Christians of Palestine are not strangers to us. They are members of the same Body of Christ, heirs to an ancient Christian tradition that stretches back to the earliest days of the Church.
As Christians, we cannot remain silent when fellow believers cry out to us for help. We cannot profess concern for the Holy Land while ignoring the plight of the people who continue to live there. We cannot honour the places made sacred by the life of Christ while remaining indifferent to the suffering of those who worship there today.
The Church must be a voice for those who feel voiceless. The international community must not avert its gaze from injustice, nor allow political interests to outweigh the demands of human dignity and fundamental rights.
I ask the faithful of the Diocese of Waterford & Lismore to remember in their prayers the Christians of Palestine, the people of Gaza, and all who suffer as a result of violence, displacement and conflict. I also ask that we pray for a peace founded not merely upon the absence of war, but upon justice, human dignity and respect for the rights of all peoples.
Please make your views known in a respectful way to your local TDs and petition them to make their voices for peace and justice known internationally for the suffering Christians of Palestine and the people of Gaza.
May the Lord grant justice to the oppressed, comfort to the afflicted, and peace to the land sanctified by His presence.
Bishop Phonsie
Bishop of Waterford & Lismore
