CV NEWS FEED // The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, has joined Pope Leo XIV in urging peace in the Holy Land, encouraging Christians around the world to take concrete action to assist those suffering in Gaza.
In response to the Pope’s concern for “children, families, and elderly survivors” suffering from a lack of humanitarian aid in Gaza, the patriarch warned against inaction: “We cannot afford the luxury of giving up or standing still,” he said, according to Vatican News. “We must do everything possible to bring help.”
Cardinal Pizzaballa said the world needs peace — and not simply political peace or the absence of war, but the “peace that comes from Christ.”
He reflected on Pope Leo’s homily during his inauguration Mass, in which Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me?” That question, the cardinal said, becomes “the paradigm of Christian life, whose result is peace.”
The patriarch acknowledged that the word “peace” has been used often, but for many, especially those in conflict zones, the idea of “brotherly love” can seem distant.
Even so, he described the Pope’s message as “a call to the entire Christian community — and I think especially of our own.”
This peace, the patriarch said, is “the kind we all need, everywhere in the world, but especially in the Holy Land.”