The Hamas militant group Nov. 26 released a third group of hostages numbering 17, who include 12 Israelis, one American woman and an Israeli-American child and three Thai nationals, according to The Associated Press, and Israel confirmed it freed another 39 Palestinians.

With hopes growing for a temporary, humanitarian cease-fire, Pope Francis met at the Vatican Nov. 22 with relatives of Israelis held hostage by Hamas and, separately, with relatives of Palestinians suffering under the Israeli siege of Gaza.

The day after Pope Francis called for a cease-fire in the Holy Land, his foreign minister spoke by phone with the foreign minister of Iran, "reiterating the absolute need to avoid escalating the conflict," the Vatican press office said.

Who knew that one day Canada’s Catholic bishops would share a common language problem with the big machers of Hollywood. Yet it appears neither group can collectively find its tongue to condemn Hamas unilaterally for its Oct. 7 butchery in Israel.

For Mother María del Pilar Llerena Vargas, "it was an image that will be very difficult to erase." The Sister of Charity of the Incarnate Word from Peru, who is serving in the Catholic parish in Gaza, recalled the pain of watching the funeral of Christians killed in an Oct. 19 blast at a Greek Orthodox church.

President Joe Biden and Pope Francis spoke by phone Oct. 22 to discuss the conflict in Israel and Gaza and facilitating a path to "durable peace" in the region, according to the press offices of both leaders.

Pope Francis called for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden to discuss the humanitarian crisis and the need to de-escalate violence in the region.

The Vatican, especially Pope Francis, must double its efforts and urge the international community to end the massacre of Palestinians killed in Gaza in the Israel-Hamas war, Palestine's ambassador to Denmark said.

Not even the horrifying violence spiralling beyond imagining in the Holy Land should blind us to Hamas’ ultimate responsibility for the carnage resulting for its Oct. 7 slaughter of Israeli innocents.

On the same day the Toronto Board of Rabbis pleaded with their co-religionists to show public solidarity, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, offered himself as one such sign.

The Catholic Church's highest ranking prelate in the Holy Land offered his "absolute availability" to be exchanged for Israeli children taken hostage by Hamas.

Patriarchs and heads of all the churches in Jerusalem have issued an urgent appeal to Israel and the international community to open a humanitarian corridor, to assist people caught in what many fear is an imminent humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip.  

After the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas terrorist, Israel is now at war with Hamas and the security not only of Israel but of Jews worldwide is at stake. Many journalists, politicians and faith leaders have struggled with what to say either staying silent or releasing nebulous statements failing to assign moral responsibility. To navigate all of this we need firm moral principles, a sense of history and some clear-headed realism.

Just before the children in her kindergarten class went on vacation for the Jewish Sukkot Festival, Romina Shvalb, 42, a kindergarten teacher in the quiet Israeli kibbutz of Nir Oz near the Gaza border, had baked challah -- the braided sweet bread Jews traditionally eat on the Sabbath and holidays -- with the children.

We applaud and magnify the sombre yet vital words the good people of Christian-Jewish Dialogue of Toronto issued in the aftermath of last weekend’s heart-wrenching atrocities in the Holy Land.