Cardinal Pizzaballa asks Christians in the Holy Land to unite in prayer

By Linda Bordoni

“We have to leave politics behind, we have to meet and pray together. Now that the wounds are bleeding it is not the time to speak of politics,” said Cardinal Pizzaballa, pointing out that it is very difficult to recognize the suffering of the other when one is suffering.

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem was speaking to a delegation of the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) which is visiting the Holy Land to show solidarity with the local Christians and evaluate projects to help the Church in the region.

Polarization

“The situation is so polarised that if you are close to the Palestinians, the Israelis feel betrayed, and vice-versa. When I speak of the suffering of Gaza, the Hebrew Catholics tell me about the areas which suffered in the 7 October attacks, and on the other side, the Palestinians think only of Gaza. Everybody wants to have a monopoly on the suffering,” he said.

Noting that the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem includes Catholics of the Hebrew vicariate serving in the army in Gaza as well as Catholics being bombed in Gaza, he expressed his belief that the Church must avoid being sucked into the conflict” and be a constructive presence.

“I keep being told I need to be neutral. Come with me to Gaza, speak to my people who lost everything, and then tell me I have to be neutral. It doesn’t work. But we cannot become part of the political, or military clash or the confrontation,” he said.

Providing aid

Meanwhile, the Patriarchate is doing what it can to help the small Christian community in Gaza, but the situation is so unstable it can take weeks to get aid to where it is needed.

On Thursday both the British Government and the European Commission pledged to restore funding to UNRWA – the UN Relief Agency for Palestinian refugees at a time in which Israeli attacks in the enclave continue and Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim responsibility for a drone attack on Tel Aviv which killed one person.