Vatican City – May 5: One of Pope Francis’s iconic “pope mobiles” is being repurposed into a mobile healthcare unit for children in the Gaza Strip, the Vatican’s official media outlet reported on Sunday.
According to Vatican News, the vehicle used by the late pontiff during his 2014 pilgrimage to the Holy Land — has been entrusted to Caritas Jerusalem, a Catholic humanitarian network. The initiative fulfills one of Pope Francis’s final wishes before his passing: to assist children suffering in the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave.
The modified pope mobile will serve as a mobile health clinic, equipped to provide diagnosis, examination, and treatment services to injured and malnourished children. Medical professionals and aid workers will operate the unit, which will be dispatched to under served communities in Gaza once safe access is established.
“This is more than just a vehicle — it is a message to the world that the children of Gaza have not been forgotten,” said Peter Brune, Secretary General of Caritas Sweden.
Throughout his papacy, Francis consistently advocated for peace, repeatedly calling for ceasefires in both the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts. His final public appeal for peace was made on Easter Sunday just one day before his death.
Pope Francis had also maintained close pastoral contact with Gaza’s Christian minority, making nightly phone calls to the Holy Family Church, the enclave’s sole Catholic church. The church had become an informal shelter for both Christians and Muslims amid ongoing Israeli military operations following the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel by Hamas.
In a symbolic gesture that drew international attention, Pope Francis approved a Nativity scene during Christmas that featured the infant Jesus wrapped in a keffiyeh the traditional Palestinian scarf often associated with pro-Palestinian solidarity. The display was quietly removed by the Vatican shortly after its installation.
The transformation of the pope mobile into a mobile clinic underscores the late pontiff’s enduring legacy of compassion and his commitment to global humanitarianism.