VATICAN CITY: Khader Qassis traveled 32 hours from the West Bank, passing military checkpoints across three countries, to join hundreds of thousands of other young Catholics in Rome for a week-long pilgrimage.<\/p>\n
While Rome thronged with singing pilgrims, the 20-year-old from Bethlehem said he felt some guilt that he was in the cheerful Italian capital while starvation was spreading in Gaza, which has been besieged by Israel for months.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard when there are people in Gaza dreaming just to eat and I\u2019m traveling,\u201d Qassis told AFP.<\/p>\n
The Vatican is holding its \u201cJubilee of Youth\u201d this week, with up to a million 18-to-35 year-olds expected to take part.<\/p>\n
The Vatican has singled out pilgrims from conflict zones \u2014 especially Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Ukraine \u2014 that made major \u201csacrifices\u201d to get to the Eternal City.<\/p>\n
For many living in war-scarred countries, the trip was a chance to experience a breath of normalcy.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing here lets us feel that we\u2019re free,\u201d said Jessie Khair, an 18-year-old Palestinian woman from the West Bank, wearing a black kufiyah scarf.<\/p>\n
She was moved by the outpouring of sympathy over Gaza, \u201cfar from the borders, checkpoints and anything that could hurt us.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the majestic St. Peter\u2019s Square, a group of pilgrims waved a Syrian flag.<\/p>\n
Father Fadi Syriani was accompanying a group of 11 Syrian youths, many of whom left their country for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a generation that has grown up in the years of war that started in 2011,\u201d he told AFP, saying that Syrian Christian youths, a tiny minority in the country, felt \u201cisolated\u201d from the rest of the Church.<\/p>\n
Many Christians have fled war in Syria, where a recent attack on a Damascus church killed 25 people.<\/p>\n
In Rome, Syriani said, the youths can \u201cwitness that there is still hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Vatican\u2019s youth event is also unfolding as Moscow pounds Ukraine with more deadly attacks despite Western ultimatums to end its invasion.<\/p>\n
Leo XIV, who became pope in May, has brought hope to many Ukrainians after his predecessor pope Francis had repeatedly made comments that infuriated Ukrainians, who accused him of giving in to Russian imperialism.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the last few months, the communication is better than what it was,\u201d said 23-year-old Svitlana Tryhub, from the front-line city of Zaporizhzhia but now living in Lviv near the Polish border.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to be balanced, but it is important to be brave and speak up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Most of Ukraine\u2019s pilgrims came from western Ukraine, the most religious part of the country, with the largest share of Greek Catholics, who pledge allegiance to the Vatican.<\/p>\n
Because of the ban on military-age men from leaving Ukraine, almost all were women.<\/p>\n
Valerie Fabianska, an 18-year-old economy student, said she could \u201cforgive\u201d or pray alongside Russians only if those responsible for the invasion were jailed and their country \u201caccepted its crimes\u201d against Ukraine.<\/p>\n
She said the war had made her more religious.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the world around you is so unstable, you can find some peace and stability in God,\u201d she said, acknowledging nonetheless that it was \u201creally hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Rome\u2019s Ukrainian Greek Catholic church, an all-women choir sang amid a \u201cprayer for Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maria Khrystofora, a young nun from a western Ukrainian monastery, said she had noticed that more of her countrymen were coming to the church during the war.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people have nothing human to rely on, they turn to God to help them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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