Holy Family

That’s what Gaza residents sheltering in this besieged Catholic parish called the time — usually 8 p.m. local time, 7 p.m. in Rome — when Pope Francis would video call Father Gabriel Romanelli, the pastor of the Holy Family Church in Gaza City.

But for the church officials and the families at Holy Family Church, the pope was not a distant religious figure in a faraway country, but a daily presence.

Many have been living, as well as worshipping, at the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City.

George Anton, a local Catholic, is the emergency coordinator in the Holy Family church.

At the Holy Family Basilica in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, Rosemary Muthui said worshippers there will remember the Pope as a man who brought change to the Church, especially in promoting equality.