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In his last months, Pope Francis blessed an effort to transform the vehicle he used when he visited the West Bank in 2014 into a mobile health clinic to treat Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip.
May 4, 2025Updated 5:30 a.m. ET
When Pope Francis visited Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in 2014, he crisscrossed the traditional birthplace of Jesus in a white popemobile manufactured especially for his visit.
Now, the vehicle is being transformed into a mobile health clinic to treat ill and wounded Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip — an initiative that Pope Francis blessed in the months before he died.
While the clinic will serve only a limited number of Palestinians in Gaza, Pope Francis’s personal involvement in the project reflected his commitment to Palestinian civilians caught in the crossfire between Israel and Hamas, particularly children, in more than 18 months of war.
“The papamobile is a very concrete sign that Pope Francis is concerned with all the suffering of children in Gaza, even after his death!” Cardinal Anders Arborelius of Sweden said in an email on Monday.
The idea to recreate the popemobile as a health clinic came from leaders of Caritas, a Catholic organization, and Cardinal Arborelius approached Francis with it. The Swedish cardinal is a contender to become the next pope after Francis, who died on April 28.
The popemobile, a converted Mitsubishi, was donated by President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority for Francis’ visit. It was given to the Franciscan order afterward, and then to Caritas after Francis blessed its use in Gaza.
