A popemobile used by Pope Francis during a trip to Bethlehem in 2014 and throughout his life will be converted into a medical vehicle to help treat children in the Gaza Strip — an initiative he approved in the months leading up to his death.
The late pontiff rode around the West Bank in the uniquely designed car while visiting the birthplace of Jesus, which is located about 10 kilometres south of Jerusalem, over a decade ago. He was also seen greeting crowds in Vatican City from the vehicle the day before he died on April 21.
Pope Francis in the popemobile tours the square at the end of the Holy Mass on Easter Sunday at Saint Peter’s Square.
Marco Lacobucci / Getty Images
The vehicle is being fitted with emergency medical equipment to help treat juvenile patients living in Gaza, where the majority of the health infrastructure has been destroyed.
Pope Francis entrusted the initiative to the Catholic aid organization Caritas Jerusalem, Vatican News said.
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Peter Brune, Secretary General of Caritas Sweden, which is supporting the project, told Vatican News that the project is “a concrete, life-saving intervention at a time when the health system in Gaza has almost completely collapsed.”
“It’s not just a vehicle,” Brune said. “It’s a message that the world has not forgotten about the children in Gaza.”
Cardinal Arborelius from Sweden, who is in contention to be the next Pope, reportedly approached Francis with the idea to convert the vehicle.
The mobile clinic will serve a small number of patients in the war-torn enclave, but reflects the late pope’s longstanding efforts to provide support to the region’s most vulnerable civilians, according to the New York Times.
According to Reuters, Gaza is home to a small Christian community, one that Pope Francis had been in contact with almost daily since the war broke out in October 2023, after Hamas militants attacked an Israeli music festival close to the Gaza border.
“The papamobile is a very concrete sign that Pope Francis is concerned with all the suffering of children in Gaza, even after his death!” Arborelius said in an email on Monday to the New York Times.
The mobile medical unit will be stocked with rapid infection tests, vaccines, diagnostic equipment and suture kits. It will be manned and operated by medical professionals.
Caritas plans to deploy the clinic to communities without access to functioning healthcare facilities once humanitarian access to Gaza is feasible.
Francis had several popemobiles, with the one used in the 2014 visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories remaining in the region following his return to the Vatican.
A conclave to elect a new pope starts on May 7.
— With files from Reuters
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