LEICESTER, United Kingdom – Support from the Catholic Church for the Palestinians in Gaza is “extremely powerful” for the war-torn people, according to one British MP.

Shockat Adam, the Member of Parliament for Leicester South who was elected in 2024 as an Independent, has strongly supported the people of Gaza.

Adam said the Holy See is a key ally in supporting Palestinians.

“The Vatican has been doing it, but other Christian denominations and even Muslim leaders haven’t been as vociferous and clear on this,” Adam told Crux.

“The Vatican has a role to play, have played a role, and should continue to do so,” he said. “The leadership of the Church addressing parliamentarians and legislators and world leaders is a really powerful avenue of making change,” he said.

Adam also said the Vatican’s peculiar position and role on the world stage – without a “political agenda” – “gives [the Holy See] a very unique influencing point.”

The Gaza War broke out following an Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack by Hamas militants that left 1,200 Israelis dead and saw 251 people taken as hostages.

Israel launched a retaliatory offensive in Gaza to oust Hamas from leadership, with the ensuing conflict resulting in the deaths of around 70,000 people to date in Gaza, according to Palestinian estimates.

A peace deal made earlier this year broke down, and Israel has increased its attacks on Gaza, killing thousands of people, most of them civilians.

On July 17, 2025, an Israeli tank fired on the Church of the Holy Family, the only Catholic parish in Gaza. The attack killed three people and injured several others, including Father Gabriel Romanelli, the pastor of the church.

After the Gaza War began, Pope Francis – who died on April 21 – phoned the parish almost every day, and often condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza, calling for an investigation into accusations of genocidal actions.

“Pope Francis, in my opinion, was one of very few religious leaders that showed moral clarity on this issue,” Adam told Crux.

“He didn’t dither; he spoke about potential genocide. He was very, very clear on what was happening and what was happening was wrong,” he said on Friday.

“His call to this particular church [Holy Family] and the Christian community in Gaza, although he was speaking to the Christian community it was being felt by the Muslim community. And there was almost the level that we wish we had somebody of that status that was doing the same,” he added.

Pope Leo XIV – elected May 8 – has also appealed for peace in Gaza and even convoked a day of prayer and fasting for Friday, August 22 (the day Crux spoke with Adam). Many bishops’ conferences around the world have called for days of prayer for peace in Gaza, as well.

“As a person who believes in faith and believes in God, we have prayer as a mechanism, as a vehicle, as a truth to achieve our goal in the world,” the Muslim parliamentarian said.

“The power of prayer is very strong,” Adam said, “and it shouldn’t be underestimated; and also when it is done in a united fashion between different churches and different faith groups, it really brings a sense of unity and that is a real powerful tool.”

“Although there is a Christian community in Palestine – it is a very small community, admittedly – but for the Christian community to pray for the situation in Gaza, for all the people in Palestine, is extremely powerful and it is something we shouldn’t underestimate and [should] keep promoting,” he also said.

Adam visited the West Bank during the Easter period and said the treatment that he saw given to the Christian community left him “quite taken aback.”

“The obstruction at the checkpoints: It was Good Friday, not allowed into the checkpoints because it was a Jewish festival at the same time. Speaking to the Christian Palestinians in the sanctuary in Bethlehem and in another town, it became evident to me it wasn’t a Muslim-centric attack, it was Palestinian attack,” he told Crux.

“ I think this conflict has been pitched as Jewish versus Muslim – and undeniably there are religious connotations to the conflict because of where it is located – but for me, if one steps back and looks at it from a legal or humanitarian perspective, it is a conflict against humanity and justice,” Adam said.

“Of course, there is the religious connotation because of the three holy places of the three Abrahamic faiths,” Adam said. “There’s always going to be a religious influence, but I have found that religion has been weaponized,” he continued.

“For me, when I see an injustice or a war crime or a genocide against the people of Palestine, I do not in any way associate with the faith of the perpetrators or the perpetrated. I just see as the inhumanity of the situation – the injustice of the situation,” he said.

Adam told Crux about his meeting with a Palestinian refugee in the West Bank, who, standing with her child, told him the international community had forgotten them.

“I said to her: ‘We haven’t forgotten. The day of prayer is an example of that. The millions marching in the streets, the fact that someone like me got elected— We haven’t forgotten you; what we have done is fail you.’ We have all failed,” he said.

He noted that Palestinian areas can be sealed off at any time, for any reason. This means people can’t get to schools, hospitals, or work. And when they can do so, it takes hours longer than it should, and then sometimes they can’t get home.

“I have no idea what that does to a man when he wants to work and provide for his children. Divorce rates I hear are about 60 percent; drug addiction is everywhere. I met children that haven’t been to school for two years,” Adam said.

“Every fabric of the Palestinian society has been destroyed. It is really important that we recognize the Palestinian State, and it is really important that we then give them the tools to be able to create a successful state, but at this moment in time everything has been engineered for them to not be successful,” he continued.

Adam says the Palestinian issue needs be solved using an international body, similar to the Madrid Conference of 1991.

“But the issue would be that we need sincere players who would understand the people of Palestine, and it is fundamentally their voices articulated by people of power,” he said.

He also said the situation in the British parliament was “a paradox” where people from all parties are opposed to the war in Gaza, but the government’s attitude “is completely contradictory to what they feel.”

He said building peace in Palestine is not going to be easy.

“It is going to be very difficult,” Adam said.

“After seeing this – in front of our eyes – live stream genocide and war crimes,” he told Crux, “we have to be the people that make the change.”

Follow Charles Collins on X: @CharlesinRome