Catholic doctor haunted by work in Gaza: ‘Every day I relive what I saw’
Dr. Greg Shay, a retired pediatric pulmonologist who lives in San Francisco, interacts with a patient with cystic fibrosis and malnutrition at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, in October. Shay has made three medical missions to Gaza since 2022. (Courtesy of Greg Shay)
by Camillo Barone
NCR staff reporter
View Author Profilecbarone@ncronline.org
Dr. Greg Shay knew he might not return alive from Gaza. His wife Linda begged him not to go. His children staged an intervention over the phone, their voices heavy with desperation.
The 70-year-old retired San Francisco pediatric pulmonologist decided he had no choice. The Israel-Hamas war had cut off desperately needed medicine for young Gazan cystic fibrosis patients. The doctors he had trained there a few years ago felt abandoned.
He had to go back.
Before he left in early October, he sat in the quiet of St. Joseph’s Basilica in San Francisco, facing his priest. “I want last rites,” he said to his pastor, Fr. Mario Rizzo.
The priest hesitated. “I don’t think you understand what last rites are.”
Shay whispered: “I could die there,” tears piercing the resolve of a man who, by his own admission, was usually a “hard-ass.”
Rizzo gave Shay a special blessing, anointed him with chrism oil and urged him to take a rosary. Shay chose instead to rely on his 10 fingers for prayer, leaving behind his cherished Fatima and silver bead rosaries and carrying into Gaza only his faith and a Maximilian Kolbe medal in his pocket.
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