The Vatican is working on converting one of Pope Francis’ former popemobiles into a mobile health clinic for the children in Gaza, fulfilling one of the late pontiff’s last wishes.
The vehicle, used by Francis during his 2014 visit to the Holy Land, is being outfitted with diagnostic and emergency medical equipment to help young patients in the Palestinian enclave, where health services have been devastated by Israel’s genocidal war.
Pope Francis, who died last month, entrusted the initiative to the Catholic aid organization Caritas Jerusalem in the months before his death, Vatican News said Sunday.
“This is a concrete, life-saving intervention at a time when the health system in Gaza has almost completely collapsed,” Peter Brune, Secretary-General of Caritas Sweden, which is supporting the project, told Vatican News.
The mobile unit will be equipped with rapid infection tests, vaccines, diagnostic tools, and suture kits and staffed by medical personnel.
Caritas plans to deploy the clinic to communities without access to functioning health care facilities once humanitarian access to Gaza is feasible.
“It’s not just a vehicle,” Brune added. “It’s a message that the world has not forgotten about the children in Gaza.”
Gaza has a tiny Christian community and the Vatican has said Francis used to call the Holy Family Church in Gaza on an almost daily basis for much of the war, which was triggered by the October 2023 Hamas incursion of southern Israel.
Francis had several popemobiles, with the one used in the 2014 visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories, staying in the region following his return to the Vatican.
A conclave to elect a new pope starts on May 7.
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