In the early morning hours of Tuesday, Google abruptly deactivated the Gmail account of an international movement of priests.
At 2:06 AM on September 10, the communication lifeline of the global network Priests Against Genocide was severed, the group said in a statement. Without warning, attempting to log into the account () was met with the digital message: “Your account has been deactivated.”
Immediate attempts to reach Google support hit a bureaucratic wall. Google’s automated recovery protocols offered a paradox — requiring access to the very inbox that had just been locked away.
Priests Against Genocide are active in protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, which has been widely described as a genocide by human rights organisations such as Amnesty International, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), Human Rights Watch, and B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, as well as various UN Special Rapporteurs and independent human rights experts.
“So far, through that account, over 2,600 signatures from priests in 68 countries have been collected in support of the campaign — including bishops and cardinals. The document containing the signatures is essential for the prayer gathering scheduled in Rome for September 22, the day when priests will gather to pray on the eve of the UN General Assembly,” Priests Against Genocide said in a statement.
“The sudden block of this account prevents the collection of new signatures and thus risks compromising an international initiative involving hundreds of priests committed to peace and justice. It further interrupts all communication with the members of the network and with external collaborators.”
A year ago, on September 19, 2025, Google enacted an identical sudden, and unexplained block, just days before the movement’s inaugural Rome gathering on September 22.
“This repeated blocking of the account, occurring just days before the priests’ gathering in Rome for the second consecutive year, is not something the network can accept as coincidence, and it demands a full and transparent explanation from Google,” the priests’ group said.
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