Pope Francis’ popemobile is being converted into a health clinic on wheels for children in Gaza, fulfilling the late pontiff’s final wishes.
The Catholic charity Caritas Jerusalem, which was gifted the vehicle after Francis’ visit to the West Bank in 2014, revealed that the pontiff reached out to them in his final months asking them to use his popemobile to help the children in Gaza.
“The purpose of the initiative is to safeguard and uphold children’s fundamental rights and dignity,” the Israel-based charity said in a statement.
REUTERS
Peter Brune, the secretary general of Caritas Sweden, said the vehicle will arrive in Gaza just in time to help “reach children who today have no access to healthcare – children who are injured and malnourished.
“This is concrete, life-saving intervention at a time when the health system in Gaza has almost completely collapsed,” Brune said in a statement. “It’s not just a vehicle, it’s a message that the world has not forgotten about the children in Gaza.”
The Vatican confirmed Francis’ final wish for the popemobile, which will drive around a doctor and medical staff, along with equipment to test for infections and suture wounds, the New York Times reported.
It will take about three weeks to complete the transformation and install blast-proof windows, with Caritas Jerusalem still waiting on approval from Israel to ride the vehicle into Gaza.
Anton Asfar of Caritas Jerusalem said the gift was evidence that the conflict in Gaza never strayed too far from the late pope’s mind.
“This vehicle represents the love, care and closeness shown by His Holiness for the most vulnerable, which he expressed throughout the crisis,” Asfar told the Vatican News.
Before his death last month, Francis repeatedly called for an end to the war in Gaza, with the pontiff’s final Easter message slamming the humanitarian crisis in the enclave as “dramatic and deplorable.”
