Gaza Genocide · updated 1h ago · 3 min read
About 150 Catholic Priests March to Vatican, Demand End to Gaza Genocide
About 150 priests and nuns marched to the Vatican demanding an end to Gaza genocide. They carried a banner bearing the names of 300 children killed in Gaza and Lebanon.
11 outlets told this the same way.
Outlets did split on Trump’s Board of Peace Proposes $2.45 Billion Six-Month Gaza Reconstruction Plan →
6 of 8 outlets skipped it: al Jazeera says the shroud names children killed in Gaza, West Bank and Lebanon..
The Times of Israel was read line by line by the Watchdog: 3.4. See the score →
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Rome march and shroud
About 150 Catholic priests and friars, a bishop and nuns marched to the Vatican and prayed Tuesday in front of St. Peter’s Basilica to call for an end to what they called the “genocide” in Gaza.
The protesters carried a banner down the main boulevard leading to the Vatican bearing the names of 300 children who they said died during Israel’s war in Gaza and southern Lebanon, and the marchers did not enter Vatican territory while they had an Italian police escort.
The “Priests Against Genocide” network was born in August 2025 and currently includes more than 2,500 priests and bishops from five continents, organizers said.
Michel Sabbah, emeritus Patriarch of Jerusalem, sent a letter that said, “Here, at this moment, death reigns everywhere, hatred multiplies, and blood continues to flow.”
The march ended in front of Leonardo’s headquarters, a company 30% owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, which the Vatican News account tied to a SIPRI 2025 report and a 10% increase in war-related revenue to $13.8 billion.
Claims, denials, and clergy
The Times of Israel said Pope Francis once called for an investigation to determine if a genocide had taken place, while Israel denied the accusation and said it tries to avoid harming civilians and has blamed their deaths on Hamas. The Times of Israel also said Israel launched its offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, on October 7, 2023. The march drew on a shroud that organizers said bore the names of roughly 300 Palestinian and Lebanese children killed by the Israeli military after ceasefires had been declared, and the procession began inside Santo Spirito in Sassia with prayer.
Don Rito Maresca, one of the organizers, told ANSA on Tuesday that the network now counts some 2,600 members, 27 bishops and three cardinals among them. Father Nandino Capovilla, who took part in the march, said, “a signal must be sent to all Christians in the Holy Land.”
What comes next
The Independent Catholic News account said the network reaffirmed that “A truce that does not stop the killing is not a truce,” and it described the shroud as being sent to the USA to join an international shroud initiative.
““A truce that does not stop the killing is not a truce.””
The Catholic Observer described the Gaza Children’s Shroud as a 330-foot-long display bearing the names of more than 20,000 Palestinian children killed in the enclave by Israeli forces, and it said the tour launched outside Philadelphia’s City Hall on September 1.
The Catholic Observer reported that organizers timed the shroud’s arrival in New York to the United Nations General Assembly, where President Donald J. Trump was scheduled to speak the next morning and where U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz said he would tout progress on the U.S.-brokered Gaza peace plan unveiled last September.
The Catholic Observer also quoted Franciscan Father Jacek Orzechowski saying, “We need to never allow a human being to be reduced to a nameless statistic.”
Vatican News said the march’s appeal included a call to “banishing weapons” and to “no to companies profiting from war,” and it placed the demonstration’s end at Leonardo’s headquarters.