Pope Francis’ final gift to Gaza

VATICAN CITY, Italy

One of Pope Francis’s “popemobiles” is being transformed into a mobile healthcare unit for children and sent to the Gaza Strip, the Vatican’s official media outlet said on Sunday.

In one of his final wishes before his passing, Francis entrusted the popemobile used during his 2014 pilgrimage of the Holy Lands to the Catholic aid network Caritas Jerusalem, Vatican News said, to help respond to the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Francis asked that the vehicle be used to help injured and malnourished children in the war-torn Palestinian enclave.

Caritas are converting the vehicle into a mobile health station by retrofitting it with medical equipment for diagnosis, examination, and treatment of children, and other life-saving supplies.

Staffed with doctors and medics the new clinic on wheels will be sent to communities that lack access to functioning healthcare facilities, once safe access to Gaza is feasible, Caritas said.

“It’s not just a vehicle, it’s a message that the world has not forgotten about the children in Gaza,” Peter Brune, secretary general of Caritas Sweden, said in a statement.

World peace was a core message throughout Francis’ pontificate, with him having called for ceasefires of both the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars on multiple occasions, the final of which was on Easter Sunday – the day before his death.

Francis had been making near-nightly calls to the Holy Family Church – Gaza’s only Catholic church – which had been serving as a de facto shelter for its community of worshippers and some Muslims throughout Israeli military campaigns that followed the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel by Hamas.

He had also controversially installed a Nativity scene during Christmas festivities depicting a baby Jesus swaddled in a keffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian garment now heavily associated with pro-Palestine movements and activism, which the Vatican removed from display shortly after it was put on display.

The Conclave that will vote for Francis’ successor assembles on Wednesday.