The Vatican has announced that the “pope-mobile” used by Pope Francis during his 2014 visit to the birthplace of Jesus Christ is being transformed into a mobile clinic for children in Gaza, following the late Pope’s last wishes.
The Catholic non-profit organization Caritas Jerusalem made the announcement on Sunday.
In a statement, the non-profit organization revealed that Francis had instructed them in his final months to “convert his pope-mobile into a mobile health station for the children in Gaza.”
“This initiative aims to protect and uphold the fundamental rights and dignity of children,” stated Caritas Jerusalem, also sharing the first images of the newly adapted pope-mobile.
Francis approved the “pope-mobile” project in November 2024, the Times reported. The Catholic Church was gifted a new, all-electric “pope-mobile,” based on the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, an SUV, in December, according to USA Today.
Vatican News, the official news source of the Vatican, also picked up the announcement. The vehicle will be staffed “by a driver and medical doctors” and is currently being fitted with equipment for diagnosis, examination and treatment, including rapid tests for infections, suture kits, syringes and needles, oxygen supply, vaccines and a refrigerator for medicines, according to the non-profit.
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza is increasingly critical, especially for the nearly one million displaced children,” Caritas Jerusalem wrote. “When access to food, water and healthcare is cut off, children are often the first and hardest hit. Starvation, infection and other preventable conditions put their lives at risk.”
Before his passing, Francis “made his pope-mobile available to Caritas Jerusalem, which is now turning it into a mobile health unit for children,” according to the nonprofit. “When the humanitarian corridor to Gaza reopens, it will be ready to give primary healthcare to children in Gaza.”
Francis had repeatedly called for a cease-fire in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists killed more than 1,200 people in Israel and took hundreds more into Gaza as hostages.
Pope Francis waves to the crowd from inside his pope-mobile on his way to Manger Square to celebrate an open-air mass on May 25, 2014, in the West Bank. (Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images)
The late pontiff has increasingly condemned the Israeli military’s response and the deaths of Palestinian children.
In his final Easter address before his passing, Francis said the humanitarian situation was “dramatic and deplorable.”
“I express my closeness to the sufferings … of all the Israeli people and the Palestinian people,” he said in a message read aloud by an aide, according to Reuters. “I appeal to the warring parties: call a ceasefire, release the hostages and come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace.”
