Can Pope Leo visit Gaza? Calls for him to do so have mounted in recent weeks, most notably with an Aug. 12 Instagram post from Madonna. But it’s not that easy.

The calls for a papal visit come as malnutrition deaths spike in the Gaza Strip after Israel imposed an almost three-month total blockade against food, fuel and medical supplies entering Gaza. Since late May, only limited aid has reached those in need, and only through the Israeli- and American-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, at whose sites 1,000 people have died seeking food and another 7,000 have been injured, according to the World Health Organization.

“Most Holy Father,” the pop star wrote, “Please go to Gaza and bring your light to the children there. As a mother, I cannot bear to watch their suffering. The children of the world belong to everyone. You are the only one of us who cannot be denied entry.”

This latter claim is unfortunately not true: Israel has complete control over who enters Gaza, including religious leaders and foreign heads of state, and its borders have been “effectively sealed” since Oct. 7, 2023. The pope could certainly be denied entry.

Requests like Madonna’s for popes to enter war zones to make peace are not unprecedented. In the early years of the Iraq War, Pope John Paul II faced calls to visit the country, despite having been forced to cancel a planned trip to Iraq in 2000 and then being roundly ignored by President George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein in his efforts to broker peace between the two nations before the 2003 U.S. invasion. Australian anti-nuclear activist Dr. Helen Caldicott appealed to John Paul in 2003 to visit Baghdad, saying he was the “only person on earth who can stop this war.”

These requests, reminiscent of calls to a superhero for help, reveal the desperation of situations in which citizens feel powerless to stop the wars and violence their governments are perpetrating or that they see unfolding in the media. They are also evidence of the unique position the pope holds in the popular imagination as a broadly respected moral authority whose presence in a war-torn country might inspire civic and military leaders to stop the killing.

There is also a recent historical precedent for a pope successfully entering an active war zone: Pope Francis’ visit to the Central African Republic in 2015. Francis was invited by the country’s bishops, and its civil authorities agreed to host him. This risky papal trip did not end or even formally pause fighting in the country, although it did result in some restoration of normalcy in the Muslim enclave of PK5 in the capital city, Bangui, including the reopening of schools and the signing of a nonaggression pact between local groups there within a few months of the pope’s visit. Peaceful elections were held at the end of 2015, and the newly elected president visited the Vatican a few months later; within a year of the elections, the C.A.R. had signed an agreement with the Holy See to establish continued cooperation. Violence picked up again, however, with a significant flare-up displacing hundreds of thousands of people in 2020 and 2021.

With these precedents in mind, several questions come to the fore: Would Israel ever allow Pope Leo to visit Gaza? If he were allowed in, what impact might it have, both in the short and long term?

It is highly unlikely that Israel would allow Pope Leo into the enclave. He is a foreign head of state and has been vocally critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza, saying at his installation Mass (with Israeli president Isaac Herzog in attendance), “In Gaza, the surviving children, families and elderly are reduced to starvation.” He has called on Israel to allow aid into Gaza and at times has been criticized for speaking about the suffering of Palestinians without mentioning the Israelis taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023. 

The pope has also spoken on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging him to end the war and implement protections for civilians and places of worship. He has also expressed concern about “the dramatic humanitarian situation” in Gaza, according to the Holy See. Recently, at the Jubilee of Young People, the pope said emphatically, “We are with the young people of Gaza.”

Popes also generally travel with a cadre of journalists—the journalists’ fees to fly with the pope are a major way the Vatican offsets the expenses of papal trips—and Israel has not permitted outside journalists to enter Gaza since the start of the war.

Only one case points to a papal visit to Gaza being a possibility: After the Israeli strike on Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City in July, which Israel said was an accident, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and another Christian patriarch were allowed to visit the parish. Cardinal Pizzaballa was also permitted to visit the church in May 2024 and just before Christmas that same year. Although he was authorized by Israel to bring 500 tons of aid into Gaza during his most recent visit, he told the press after his visit that “not a gram” had crossed the border due to “logistical issues.”

It would certainly be a powerful gesture if Pope Leo were to publicly demand entry into Gaza, even if he were denied it. The question remains whether he could convince leaders to end the war or even allow more aid into Gaza. The possible repercussions—like setting a precedent of sending popes into dangerous situations, or degrading the Holy See’s relationship with Israel, which allows at least some dialogue at the moment—also raise the question: Even if the pope could visit Gaza, should he?

For now, it appears that the new pope is working through the Holy See’s traditional diplomatic channels. As he entered his vacation home at Castel Gandolfo on Wednesday, Leo spoke about Gaza’s hunger and humanitarian crises and the importance of the safe return of Israeli hostages. Asked what he was doing about these issues, he said, “The Holy See cannot stop them…but we are working, let’s say, on ‘soft diplomacy,’ always inviting, encouraging the pursuit of nonviolence through dialogue and seeking solutions—because these problems cannot be solved by war.”

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