It was widely reported that in his Christmas sermon in the Vatican, Pope Leo decried conditions for Palestinian Arabs in Gaza, in what was noted as an unusually direct appeal during what is typically a solemn, spiritual service marking Christmas, on which Christians across the globe celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Leo cleverly connected the story of Jesus being born in a manger to draw a metaphor that God had “pitched his fragile tent” among the people of the world. Then, speaking of tents, he took his metaphor further, saying, “How, then, can we not think of the tents in Gaza, exposed for weeks to rain, wind and cold?” 

Indeed. I agree with Pope Leo that many Gazans are facing harsh situations in a Holy Land winter that’s cold and particularly rainy this year.  On a simple humanitarian basis, it’s hard not to have empathy for them. But the week in which it was reported that a record number of iPhone 17s are flooding into Gaza and sold at unusually high prices of up to $36,000, there are many questions that the Pope didn’t address. 

Dipping his toes in the cold water, addressing the Gazans’ plight, he probably should have widened the conversation. 

For instance, Pope Leo could have used his pulpit to minister to the Gazans rather than preach rhetorically about them. He could have urged Hamas to surrender its weapons and cease the theft and hoarding of food and humanitarian supplies to keep for their own terrorists, or scalp at exorbitant prices on their black market. 

He could have noted that rather than importing the latest iPhone to make profit and benefit the wealthy, they should be importing baby formula, or at least stop the hoarding that was documented recently and let Gazans have the humanitarian supplies that are being imported via several hundred truckloads per day. 

Nevertheless, hats off to the Pope’s speech writer, whoever he is. Though a clever analogy comparing Jesus’ birth in a manger to Gazan tents, surely there are other equally strong analogies that could have been made, in place of or in addition to the tent one. 

Leo could have spoken about Herod’s persecution and hunt of baby boys, similar to what Hamas terrorists did on October 7, 2023, in attacking Israel and massacring 1200 people, including babies who were beheaded and burned. He could have addressed the fact about how Hamas uses Gazan civilians including women and children as human shields, hiding weapons in schools and children’s bedrooms, deliberately putting them in harm’s way, not for two years but for two decades. 

Pope Leo could have decried the Hamas control and subjugation of all Gazans under its brutal Islamic heel, like the Romans did over Israel 2000 years ago when Jesus was born and crucified. If he wanted to get edgy, he could have mentioned that Gazans are occupied by Hamas just as the Romans occupied Israel. He could have dispelled the false and anti-biblical narrative that Jesus was a Palestinian, as the Romans only invented the term more than 100 years after Jesus’ death. Surely the Pope is against things that are anti-biblical. 

Rather than seeming to imply that the Gazans’ plight was all Israel’s doing, he could have reflected on the cause of the problem, meaning Hamas and its evil Islamic ideology that puts Arabs and Israelis in danger, not the symptom of Israel’s response to a massacre. 

It would have been nice for Pope Leo to call for Hamas to release the remains of the last Israeli hostage whose body was kidnapped over 800 days ago, and for Hamas to disarm, if only for the well-being of the Gazans living in tents. This could begin a process of reconstruction and purging Gaza of this evil Islamic ideology. 

While featuring Gazan’s suffering, the Pope also addressed the crisis in Ukraine, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Sudan, South Sudan, Mali, Burkina Faso and Congo.

In a thinly veiled criticism of President Trump over issues on the southern border and illegal migrants, Leo said refusing to help the poor and strangers was tantamount to rejecting God himself. 

He didn’t criticize Trump by name, nor did he thank Trump for coming to the defense of Christians in Nigeria who have been prosecuted and slaughtered. In fact he didn’t mention persecuted Christians anywhere, a strange miss for the leader of more than a billion Catholics. Surely there was a biblical analogy to be found in the persecution of Christians. 

Not only did he not mention the need to safeguard Christians, in simply preaching about Gaza, the Pope missed an opportunity to propose a Christian solution for Peace in Gaza. It’s easy to point a finger at a problem, and reflexively comment that the only solution in the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs must include a Palestinian state. But it’s much harder and more brave to come up with an actual solution. Leo’s sermon filled with tent metaphors missed all that. 

I agree with Leo that we should not be indifferent to the human tragedy in Gaza. But unlike him, I see that talk is easy and yet does not create a solution.  It’s also a distraction from the core of the problem: Hamas as the Moslem Brotherhood outpost hijacking Palestinian Arab society, at best preventing Palestinian Arabs from getting out of the tents and from under its heel. 

The Pope would have done well to heed his own words. “If all of us, at every level, would stop accusing others and instead acknowledge our own faults, asking God for forgiveness, and if we would truly enter into the suffering of others and stand in solidarity with the weak and the oppressed, then the world would change.” 

There’s a Jewish tradition to pray for rain in Israel during the winter season.  We add that the rains should be for a blessing. Some suspended their prayers the past two years as long as there were living hostages in Hamas’ terror tunnels at the risk of creating greater suffering. Now that all the living hostages have been freed, the heavens have opened and the first month of rain has been abundant. It’s a necessary blessing after years of drought. 

Not to the exclusion of others, but the Pope would do well to remember that God’s covenant with and protection of the Jewish people is still valid and unbreakable. The Pope would have done well to consider a biblical analogy of the flood and need to repent. He could have directed his words to the Gazans to do so, rather than just focusing on the leaky tents.  

I agree with Pope Leo about Gaza. But to fix the problem one needs to go to the root cause, not the symptoms. On that we disagree.