Pope Francis has died at the age of 88, the Vatican has announced, shortly after delivering his final address on Easter Sunday, in which he called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Appearing from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, the pope listened as an aide read a benediction condemning the “deplorable humanitarian situation” caused by Israel’s onslaught on Gaza.
Pope Francis had been an outspoken critic of Israel’s war on Gaza since it began in October 2023.
In his last public appearance before he died, Pope Francis addressed Easter Sunday Mass and repeated his call for a ceasefire in Gaza. “Pope Francis’s position on Palestine is just an extension of his theology and pastoral care in general, caring for the marginalized and victims of injustice,” says Reverend Munther Isaac, a Palestinian Christian theologian and pastor from Bethlehem.
Palestinian, and Palestinian Christians in particular, have lost a dear friend today. Pope Francis was beloved in Palestine. He conveyed true compassion to Palestinians, most notably to those in Gaza during this genocide. His pastoral heart was evident in his insistence on… pic.twitter.com/wDvgExuEhR
— Munther Isaac منذر اسحق (@MuntherIsaac) April 21, 2025
As both Eastern and Western Christians prepare to celebrate Easter, the divide between Palestinian Christians and those in the West has never been larger. The core of this divide is the racist theology of Christian Zionism.
This weekend, in a rare occurrence, Christians of all denominations will be celebrating Easter at the same time as Eastern and Western Christian calendars coincide. Yet, as has become an undeniable reality for many Christian Palestinians, the only thing we share in common between our Easter and the Easter of many Christians in the West is the sheer coincidence that these celebrations are falling on the same date.
In fact, the gap between Christianity as Palestinians know it, and have known it for two thousand years, and how it is understood by many Christians in the West, has been widening since October 2023. It continues to grow with every day that passes without Western Christians speaking out against Israel’s genocide. This gap is even more striking in the United States with the presence of the Christian Zionist movement, and especially its influence in the Trump administration.
In January, Trump’s pick for the position of U.S. ambassador to the UN, Elise Stefanik, said in front of a congressional hearing that she shared the views of Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich that Israel “has a biblical right to all of the West Bank.”
Christian Zionism in the United States is mostly an evangelical phenomenon, but not exclusively. According to the Pew Research Center, 63% of white evangelicals in the U.S. believe that the state of Israel fulfilled a biblical prophecy. But Stefanik herself is Catholic. Pew shows that a quarter of white U.S. Catholics shared the same views. This indicates that Christian Zionism has its roots in an American, or probably a more widely Western, Christian narrative, rather than in a strictly evangelical tradition. (more...)
How Christian Zionism is helping to crucify the birthplace of Christ
The Vatican announces that the pontiff, 88, died on Monday morning
Pope Francis has died at the age of 88, the Vatican has announced, after his final address on Easter Sunday called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The pontiff, who was the first head of the Catholic Church to hail from the Americas in centuries, became pope in 2013.
His death at his Vatican residence was confirmed on Monday morning.
The pope was hospitalised in February with double pneumonia.
He appeared on Easter Sunday from the balcony of St Peter's Basilica as an aide read out a benediction in which the pope condemned the "deplorable humanitarian situation" caused by Israel's onslaught on Gaza.
"I express my closeness to the sufferings… of all the Israeli people and the Palestinian people," the pope said.
"I appeal to the warring parties: call a ceasefire, release the hostages and come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace." (more...)
Pope Francis dies after final address called for ending war on Gaza
Jesus was a revolutionary dude. Pope's man banned from holiest place. Sacrilege on steroids. State of tumult, once more
This week the SUNDAY WIRE broadcasts globally, with host Patrick Henningsen sharing some thoughts and reflections over this Easter weekend about the state of America, Europe and the Middle East, and especially the human tragedy and apocalypse unfolding in Palestine and the inability of western civilization to deal with, much less halt the unprecedented violence and suffering being endured in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli regime.
Google recently announced it would acquire Israeli-American cloud security firm Wiz for $32 billion. The price tag — 65 times Wiz’s annual revenue — has raised eyebrows and further solidified the close relationship between Google and the Israeli military.
In its press release, the Silicon Valley giant claimed that the purchase will “vastly improve how security is designed, operated and automated—providing an end-to-end security platform for customers, of all types and sizes, in the AI era.”
Yet it has also raised fears about the security of user data, particularly of those who oppose Israeli actions against its neighbors, given Unit 8200’s long history of using tech to spy on opponents, gather intelligence, and use that knowledge for extortion and blackmail.
Wiz was established only five years ago, and all four co-founders — Yinon Costica, Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, and Roy Reznik — were leaders in Israel’s elite military intelligence unit, Unit 8200. Like many Israeli tech companies, Wiz is a direct outgrowth of the military intelligence outfit. A recent study found that almost fifty of its current employees are Unit 8200 veterans.
“That experience showed me the impact you can make when you combine great talent with amazing technology,” Rappaport said of his time in the military.
Former Unit 8200 agents, working hand-in-glove with the Israeli national security state, have gone on to produce many of the world’s most infamous malware and hacking tools. (more...)
Wiz Acquisition Puts Israeli Intelligence in Charge of Your Google Data
