Cardinal McCarrick says meeting with Gaza youths left him feeling sad

Published: 2008-01-14

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- U.S. Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick said meeting with young people from a parish in the Gaza Strip during a pastoral visit there left him feeling sad. "It is a sad place with a lot of unhappiness and frustration," said Cardinal McCarrick, the retired archbishop of Washington. The youths he met at Holy Family Parish in Gaza had just completed their university studies and were unable to find work, he said. "They can't get started on their lives," the cardinal told Catholic News Service Jan. 11 at the conclusion of a weeklong visit to the area. He said he "came away sad and hoping that the situation would be regularized. As long as Hamas stands for the destruction of Israel, we can't move forward." Christians in Gaza have expressed a growing concern for their safety since Hamas, an Islamic extremist political and military movement, took over Gaza last year. Since then, attacks on Christian institutions have increased, and the owner of a Christian bookstore was murdered by what were believed to be Islamic extremists.

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