Popemobile transformed into Gaza mobile children’s clinic

TDT | Bethlehem

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Palestinian Territories The popemobile used by the late pope Francis on his 2014 visit to Bethlehem reemerged on Tuesday as a mobile children’s clinic to be deployed in Gaza.

The vehicle is still unmistakeable as a popemobile: pristine white inside and out, and with the familiar raised canopy. 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.

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. “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.