Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew called developments in Gaza "a true disgrace to the human race, to all of humanity."
The spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide made this statement in an address at the reopening ceremony and liturgy at the Church of the Transfiguration of Christ the Savior on the island of Heybeliada (Halki) in the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul.
"We are watching with abhorrence the scenes of civilians, of innocent children, dying of hunger, but also of hostages digging their own graves. It is a true disgrace to the human race, to all of humanity," Bartholomew said.
"We well know that it is not easy to overturn the flow of reality, the flow of history. But the Church never abandons hope, never abandons its effort to transform the world. Because the world cannot be transformed either with violence or with wars. Look at history and you shall see. Great things that have happend were always done by the few, who essentially directed history. The world is always transformed with the few, but the numberless, with the little leaven which 'leavens the whole lump', with the saints," the Ecumenical Patriarch added, quoting from Galatians 5:9.