The popemobile used by the late pope Francis on his 2014 visit to Bethlehem re-emerged on Tuesday as a mobile children’s clinic to be deployed in Gaza.<\/p>\n
The vehicle is still unmistakeable as a popemobile: pristine white inside and out, and with the familiar raised canopy.<\/p>\n
But instead of transporting the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics, the re-branded “Vehicle of Hope” is now set to serve in the war-battered Gaza Strip, in accordance with the late pope’s wishes.<\/p>\n
It was unveiled in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, around the corner from the Church of the Nativity and Manger Square, where preparations are well underway for Christmas.<\/p>\n
“The Vehicle of Hope is ready for its new mission,” Cardinal Anders Arborelius, the Bishop of Stockholm, told a press conference, after blessing the vehicle.<\/p>\n
“We want every child we reach to feel seen, heard and protected. The rights and well-being of the child come first.<\/p>\n
“This vehicle stands as a testament: the world has not forgotten the children of Gaza.<\/p>\n
“This is not just a vehicle: it’s a message of compassion, dignity and hope.”<\/p>\n
Staffed by medics, the popemobile is intended for performing triage and is equipped for examination, diagnosis and treatment, including vaccines, stitches and tests for infections.<\/p>\n
The clinic should be able to perform up to 200 consultations a day. The children will sit in the pontiff’s chair while being attended to.<\/p>\n
– Pope’s ‘final wish’ –<\/p>\n
In May 2014, Francis visited Amman, Bethlehem and Jerusalem, on his second international visit as pontiff. The popemobile was used as he toured Bethlehem, greeting the crowds gathered in Manger Square.<\/p>\n
A gift from the Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, the converted Mitsubishi was later given to Franciscan friars.<\/p>\n
Pope Francis died on April 21 aged 88, and his final wish for Gaza’s children was that the popemobile should become a mobile health unit, the official Vatican News portal said in May.<\/p>\n
The vehicle was transformed by Caritas, the Catholic humanitarian aid organisation. Costing $15,000, it has been repurposed and spruced up by Palestinian mechanics. The open sides have been screened off.<\/p>\n
“The children of Gaza were very close to the heart of pope Francis,” said Peter Brune, secretary general of the Caritas Sweden branch.<\/p>\n
“They will sit on the seat of the pope, and be treated like the most valuable person on Earth.”<\/p>\n
However, there is no date yet as to when it might receive Israeli authorisation to enter Gaza, where a fragile truce between Israel and Hamas came into effect on October 10 after two years of war that devastated healthcare in the Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n
“As with all humanitarian assistance, we urgently need access to Gaza,” Caritas secretary general Alistair Dutton told AFP.<\/p>\n
“We’re working through the official channels to get this in as quickly as possible.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The popemobile used by the late pope Francis on his 2014 visit to Bethlehem re-emerged on Tuesday as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[26750,24334,153,155,154,26820,17420,26301,26821,5060,26822,5061,24337,24333,3766,24330,24339,26745,26300,26303],"class_list":["post-45294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-afp","tag-arab-israeli-conflict","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-caritas-internationalis","tag-church-of-the-nativity","tag-gaza-strip","tag-gaza-israel-conflict","tag-hamas","tag-humanitarian-aid-during-the-gaza-war","tag-israel","tag-israel-palestine-relations","tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict","tag-palestine","tag-politics-of-palestine","tag-politics-of-palestine-region","tag-pope","tag-pope-francis","tag-popemobile"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}