When asked what Christians can do outside the Holy Land, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa responded: “Pray and support. Support the Christian community as much as they can.” / Credit: EWTN News
ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 21, 2024 / 18:30 pm (CNA).
The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, has indicated that for now a two-state solution to end the war between Israel and Hamas in the Holy Land is “not realistic.”
“My impression is that no one wants a wider conflict, but no one is able to stop it,” Pizzaballa told EWTN’s Colm Flynn in an exclusive interview. “Now you need something new, creative, I don’t know what, but all the previous agreements, ideas, the prospective two-state solution, everything is not realistic now,” the cardinal explained.
Pizzaballa said the war between Israel and Hamas that has been underway since Oct. 7, 2023, is the worst period the people of the Holy Land have experienced in the last 35 years.
“Not only for the violence … but the proportion, the impact, also the emotional impact on the population, Israelis and Palestinians, and now in Lebanon, which is enormous,” he added.
Following the Hamas incursion into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel responded with a major military operation in Gaza, which has also involved Iran and Lebanon.
Over the past year, Pope Francis has frequently called for a cease-fire and an end to the war in the Holy Land, especially after praying the Angelus on Sundays. On Oct. 17, he received a former prime minister from Israel and three top former Palestinian ministers at the Vatican, to discuss the situation.
In his interview with Flynn, Pizzaballa expressed his concern about “the language of hatred” found everywhere. “This is terrible. And my concern is not so much about the war. Wars are not eternal; they finish, like all wars, but what will be after, the consequences will be terrible.”
The Church is the voice of the poor
Regarding the negotiations that must take place to achieve peace, the cardinal commented: “I don’t think the Church should enter these things. The Church is better to remain outside … because if you enter, you are not free. The strength of the Church is to be a voice, the voice of the poor.”
After indicating that “everyone has to do his job. I mean, politicians have to find a political perspective and religious leaders have to help people to find hope.” The patriarch of Jerusalem also made clear that “peace is an attitude. It’s not just an agreement.”
However, Pizzaballa continued, given the current situation “it’s not realistic to talk about peace. Now, what we have to first of all talk about is a cease-fire, to stop any kind of violence … to find also new leadership with vision, political vision, also religious leaders. And then you can think about a new perspective for the Middle East, not before.”
On the subject of hunger as a weapon of war, the cardinal regretted what is happening in Gaza and highlighted that the aid sent by international organizations is not enough to care for 2 million people.
When asked what Christians can do outside the Holy Land, Pizzaballa responded: “Pray and support. Support the Christian community as much as they can.”
Message to Israelis and Palestinians
After emphasizing that violence is not a solution, the patriarch of Jerusalem insisted that “Palestinians and Israelis are called by God to live one close to another, not against the other. And they have to rediscover their call.”
He further underscored that “the answer to the violence and to the evil is the cross.” He said “it is not impossible” to see God in the midst of all this because “the Gospel is not an idea or a narrative, it is life” and pointed to the need for everyone to “trust more in the power of grace of God.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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Khartoum, Sudan, Aug 1, 2017 / 06:01 am (CNA).- Dust and mud brick houses everywhere – as far as the eye can see. The houses are indistinguishable in color from the ground on which they stand. Trees are few and far between.
The road leading northwards from the Sudanese capital of Khartoum shimmers in the burning heat. The temperature tops 110 degrees. At a certain point the car turns off into an unpaved road with deep potholes, entering a residential suburb.
“Welcome to the St. Kizito School of Dar es Salaam,” says our host, Father Daniele, as we stand in the courtyard of the school, which is named after the youngest of the Ugandan martyrs. This Italian priest is a member of the clergy of the Archdiocese of Khartoum. His fluent Arabic enables him to communicate with the people of his parish in their own language.
“I belong to the Neo-Catechumenal Way and I studied at our seminary in Beirut. I’ve been living in Sudan now for more than 10 years” – a move he has never regretted, he tells his visitor from international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
“But it is an extremely difficult pastoral challenge for priests here,” he adds. This has to do more than anything with the life circumstances of his parishioners.
Fr. Daniele explains: “They are totally uprooted people. The parishioners here are for the most part come from the Nuba mountains in the south of Sudan. Their lives there were marked by the customs and traditions of their villages. But here, far from their homeland, they are completely lost.”
Many of the people many years ago came to the Khartoum area, in search of work or in order to escape the fighting in their homeland. But most of them can only survive as day laborers, and this eats away at the men‘s sense of self-worth.
“Many of them simply drift around idly when they don‘t have any work,” says Fr. Daniele, and many have no work at all. “In their traditional view of themselves, they are herders and warriors. But since there is no fighting no herding to be done here, all the work falls on the shoulders of the women.”
Unlike 90 percent of the Sudanese people, who are Sunni Muslims, the people of the Nuba mountains are Christians. There are often syncretic tendencies, with belief in magic rubbing shoulders with the Christian faith. For this reason Fr. Daniele attaches great importance to helping people grow in their faith. He says: “I want to show people above all that, despite their poverty, God loves them – and each of them individually.”
This is not always easy to understand for people imbued with a tribal way of thinking, he explains. But at least he has no concerns about church attendance. “The people come in large numbers to church. On Sundays our church is full,” he tells us.
“It is extremely important that the church be a beautiful and worthy place,” Fr. Daniele stresses, “as it is undoubtedly the most beautiful place in the lives of these people, who otherwise know only their own poverty-stricken huts and homes.“
Fr. Daniele has a particular concern for the children, and the parish school is his most important resource in this respect.
“Many of the children would spend the whole day roaming around the streets if they didn‘t come to us in school,” he explained. “Their parents show little concern for them. Attention, and even tenderness, is something most of them have never experienced, and above all not from their fathers.”
Fr. Daniele works hard to convey to the children a sense of their own self-worth. He says: “We want to show them that they are respected, precious people, loved by God. We do so by listening to each one of them and showing them respect.”
Precisely because the circumstances of the children are so difficult and their families so large and so poor – eight children or more is by no means unusual – the priest places great hope in the schools, saying that “however modest our means are here, without education the children will have no chance of a better life.”
Indeed, the Catholic school system is one of the pillars of the small Church in Sudan. For one Church official, who requested that his name not be used, the Church educational system is crucially important.
The official explains: “Our schools gain us acceptance among the majority Muslim community, and above all with the state. The state is strongly Islamic, but – because of the rapid population growth, the number of people moving into cities and limited public resources – its budget is overstretched and insufficient to provide enough schools. Hence, the government is happy to see the Church involved. As a Church we maintain almost 20 public schools in the city of Khartoum alone, and permission to build schools, unlike permission to construct churches, is something that is always granted to us.”
The schools are attended both by Christians and by Muslims. The Church official acknowledges that the quality of the schools is not the best. He says: “after all, we hardly have money for teachers and books, and nor do our students.”
But no pupil is refused admittance, even if he or she cannot afford the school fees. “For the children of the poorest families the school is the only possibility of bringing a little order into their lives,” the official stresses.
ACN is committed to support the Catholic schools in Sudan.
“The Church in Sudan has asked us for help,” says Christine du Coudray-Wiehe, who oversees ACN-funded projects in Sudan.
“It is an urgent necessity to respond, as the majority of the pupils are from Catholic families from southern Sudan,” she added. “It is vital for these families that are children be able to attend a Christian school – for this is the only way we can prevent them from being Catholics at home and Muslims at school.”
The Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition cover the altar, just dedicated by the cardinal. The covering of the altar signifies that it is both the place of the Eucharistic sacrifice and the Lord’s table. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem
Jerusalem, Sep 12, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).
On Aug. 31, exactly 100 years after its dedication, the Church of Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant was reopened for worship on the hill of Kiryat Yearim, nine miles from Jerusalem.
The church, which was closed for four years for restoration work, stands atop the hill overlooking the (Muslim) village of Abu Gosh. From the top, visitors can see Jerusalem.
A view from the hill of Kiryat Yearim, where the Church of Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant stands. At the foot of the hill lies the Muslim village of Abu Gosh, with Jerusalem visible in the background, a little more than nine miles away. The place, mentioned in the Bible as “Kiriath-Jearim,” held an important role in the history of the Jewish people, as it was here that the Ark of the Covenant rested for about 20 years until King David brought it to Jerusalem. Credit: Marinella Bandini
The place, mentioned in the Bible as “Kiriath-Jearim,” has held an important role in the history of the Jewish people as it was here that the Ark of the Covenant rested after being recovered from the Philistines (see 1 Samuel 6).
The ark contained the two stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments — God’s covenant with the Jewish people — were inscribed and was the sign of God’s presence among his people.
According to the Bible, it was hosted in the house of Abinadab, where it remained for about 20 years (see 1 Samuel 7:1-2) until King David brought it to Jerusalem.
For this reason, even today, the site is visited by many groups of Jews.
A Byzantine basilica was built on the top hill around the fifth century. The current church, the foundation stone of which was laid in 1920, stands on the remains of that building. It was consecrated in 1924 by the then-Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Luigi Barlassina, and dedicated to Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant.
The Church of Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant in Kiryat Yearim (exterior). The church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, whom Christians also honor with the title of “Ark of the Covenant.” “The covenant of God with his people finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, who is no longer just the sign of God’s presence but God himself among us. Mary is the new Ark of the Covenant because she carried Christ himself in her womb,” said Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, in his homily. Credit: Marinella Bandini
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the current Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, recently came to the basilica to dedicate its new altar on the occasion of the reopening of the church.
“This reopening is a moment of trust in the future, a desire to start anew, and this is what we need most at this time, when everything around us speaks of death and endings,” he told CNA after the celebration on Aug. 31.
The opening of the doors of the Church of Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant in Kiryat Yearim on Aug. 31, 2024, for the solemn celebration with the rite of dedication of the altar, presided over by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem. Credit: Photo courtesy of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem
“Climbing this mountain, blessed by the presence of the Lord,” he added, “invites us to have a broad and farsighted perspective on events and not to close ourselves off in the dramatic present moment.”
Hosting the event were the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition, a French congregation founded in 1832 by Mother Emilie De Vialar, which owns and operates the church and surrounding property.
The complete details of how the land came to be acquired by the sisters are lost to history, but it centers on one of the order’s sisters who died in 1927. Sister Josephine Rumèbe, who is buried in the church, was reportedly endowed with special mystical gifts and managed to acquire the land on behalf of the sisters. The story goes that she had 5,000 francs at her disposal and sought the help of a clergyman for the purchase. To prevent a competing buyer from acquiring it, the cleric secured the entire hill for 20,372 francs. Miraculously, when Sister Josephine counted the gold coins hidden in her room, the amount matched exactly what she needed.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, pours the chrism oil on the new altar of the Church of Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant in Kiryat Yearim. On Aug. 31, 2024, he presided over the solemn Mass with the rite of dedication of the altar, marking the reopening of the church after four years of restoration and maintenance work. Credit: Marinella Bandini
The dedication of the new altar in the basilica took place after the recitation of the creed and chanting of the litanies. The cardinal placed relics in the altar, including that of Mother Emilie De Vialar, who was canonized a saint in 1951. This was followed by the anointing of the altar with chrism oil, the incensing of the altar, the covering of the altar, and the lighting of the altar.
The relics placed inside the new altar of the Church of Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant in Kiryat Yearim, which was dedicated by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, on Aug. 31, 2024. Among the relics are those of Mother Emilie De Vialar, founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition, the order who owns the church and surrounding property. Credit: Marinella Bandini
“The covenant of God with his people finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, who is no longer just the sign of God’s presence but God himself among us. Mary is the new Ark of the Covenant because she carried Christ himself in her womb,” said the cardinal in his homily, inviting the faithful, following the example of the Virgin Mary, to renew their trust in God as the Lord of history and active within history.
Upon entering the church — whose iconographic elements were created by artists from the Ave Center of the Focolare Movement — the eye is drawn to the golden flame emanating from the center of the apse.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, celebrates the Eucharistic liturgy on the altar he dedicated in the Church of Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant in Kiryat Yearim on Aug. 31, 2024. Credit: Marinella Bandini
A special decoration that, on one hand, evokes the biblical significance of fire, symbolizing the presence of God, and on the other, is connected to the history of this place and particularly to Sister Josephine’s vision of a “mountain of fire,” holds significance here.
When she was still a young postulant in France, during Eucharistic adoration, Sister Josephine had a vision of flames forming a mountain with Jesus above them instead of the host. The vision then vanished, and only 50 years later, at the time of laying the foundation stone of the church, it was revealed to her that the “mountain of fire” was indeed Kiryat Yearim, which she used to call “the Holy Mountain.”
Sister Valentina Sala, the current provincial of the congregation for the Holy Land, immediately felt a strong connection to this place. She recounted to CNA: “The first time I came here for a few weeks, a sister took me to Kiryat Yearim. I knelt at Sister Josephine’s tomb and prayed to return if that was God’s will.”
Sister Valentina Sala, the current provincial of the congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition for the Holy Land, prays at the tomb of Sister Josephine Rumèbe, founder of the convent and the church in Kiryat Yearim. “The first time I came here for a few weeks, a sister took me to Kiryat Yearim. I knelt at Sister Josephine’s tomb and prayed to return if that was God’s will,” she recounted to CNA. Credit: Marinella Bandini
On the centenary of the church’s dedication, Sister Valentina also emphasized the significance of this place for her congregation, whose charism is to serve the needs of people through works of charity.
“What is charity work? What people need today is not just health care or education; there is a hunger and thirst for God. We must be able to recognize this need, helping those who come here to listen to his voice. We need places where people can pause and rest with God,” she said.
When the construction of the church was nearly complete, Sister Josephine had a vision of the Virgin Mary, at the top of the church, facing Jerusalem with outstretched arms in a gesture of dispensing grace. A statue now stands above the church to recall that vision, facing away from those entering and directed toward Jerusalem.
“This place, which evokes the covenant, invites us to realign ourselves with God and to be under this blessing,” Sister Valentina concluded.
This is also the meaning of the words she addressed to those present — the vast majority of local faithful from Jerusalem as well as from Galilee — at the end of the Mass.
Hundreds of local faithful from Jerusalem and Galilee attend the solemn Mass with the rite of dedication of the altar, marking the reopening of the Church of Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant in Kiryat Yearim, on Aug. 31, 2024. A hundred years ago, Sister Josephine Rumèbe of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition wrote about having seen a vision of “a crowd rushing toward the basilica. I saw priests, sisters of our order, and then men and women of the world who were even more pleasing to God than all the others, holy souls shining like stars.” Credit: Marinella Bandini
“Sister Josephine had already seen you in various visions: ‘I saw a crowd rushing toward the basilica. I saw priests, sisters of our order, and then men and women of the world who were even more pleasing to God than all the others, holy souls shining like stars.’”
She continued: “And what if we are that vision? What if we are that future? Of course, we are! From now on, you will be the ones to bring life to this hill, to this covenant between God and his people. Come, rush, stay, feel at home. There is not only a newly renovated church to see but a Presence to discover: Take the time to dwell with the Lord. What could be more beautiful… Many graces await to be dispensed from here!”
Istanbul, Turkey, Mar 8, 2021 / 09:47 pm (CNA).- Turkish authorities have arrested a scam artist who reportedly attempted to claim ownership of and sell a famous Catholic basilica in Istanbul. According to International Christian Concern, Sebahatt… […]
5 Comments
From day ONE, going. back decades Hamas has stated over and over that they will settle for NOTHING LESS than the complete eradication of the state of Israel, and that position hasn’t changed at all.
That doesn’t leave a whole lot of wiggle room for negotiations.
From the River to the Sea…
It is the Palestinians who were the first to diss the two-state solution, not the Israeli’s
The Middle Eastern’s Muslim community has been attacking their Jewish neighbors from Day 1
A one state solution would also be unrealistic, as it would inevitably end with the genocide of the entire Jewish population by Palestinian fanatics. The ideal solution is to give Gaza back to Egypt, for Israel to annex East Jerusalem, and parts of the West Bank that are effectively incorporated into Israel, and give the rest back to Jordan. A Palestinian state would sadly be safe haven for terrorists and extremists and therefore is not in the interests of the region.
A two State solution might be possible if Hamas was interested in actually governing, rather than focused on the destruction of Israel. If Hamas attempted to make life better for the people of Gaza, rather than terrorist, we would all be better off.
Following World War I, President Wilson’s proposed politics of “autonomy” devolved into only sovereign autonomy. The option for autonomy within federations (like, say, the British Commonwealth) lost currency. The Austria-Hungarian federation/dynasty, for all of its flaws, was dismembered and (some say) the resulting power vacuum in central Europe enabled Hitler to annex the German Sudetenland from the new Czechoslovakia. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!
Something has to happen in our post-modern world to reframe the entire conflict in the Middle East, and elsewhere.
And, neither a two-state nor a federated-state model is in the cards. Islam, of course, is a half-global cultural/religious identity, superficially subdivided under the nation-state idiom (Saudi Arabia remains a kingdom). Proxies Hamas and Hezbollah are embedded terrorist non-states infesting a Palestinian population. And, for its part, the West is a cultural/post-Christian identity that needs, as one analyst remarked on the eve of the European Union, “a purpose other than fatness.”
In the less precarious world of only a few decades back, historian Philip Jenkins speculated a remotely possible mediation role for the Papacy—coming as it does from before and outside the nation-state system. No longer even remotely likely. Although, the global spread of cardinal appointees, beginning under Pope Pius XII, might offer pause within a global and non-political matrix…assuming that the red hats and other successors of the Apostles can pick up where the real Vatican II left off. By outgrowing the navel-gazing circularity of the secularizing Synod on Synodality.
Might we say, at least, that there are no only-secular solutions to a fallen world?
From day ONE, going. back decades Hamas has stated over and over that they will settle for NOTHING LESS than the complete eradication of the state of Israel, and that position hasn’t changed at all.
That doesn’t leave a whole lot of wiggle room for negotiations.
From the River to the Sea…
It is the Palestinians who were the first to diss the two-state solution, not the Israeli’s
The Middle Eastern’s Muslim community has been attacking their Jewish neighbors from Day 1
A one state solution would also be unrealistic, as it would inevitably end with the genocide of the entire Jewish population by Palestinian fanatics. The ideal solution is to give Gaza back to Egypt, for Israel to annex East Jerusalem, and parts of the West Bank that are effectively incorporated into Israel, and give the rest back to Jordan. A Palestinian state would sadly be safe haven for terrorists and extremists and therefore is not in the interests of the region.
A two State solution might be possible if Hamas was interested in actually governing, rather than focused on the destruction of Israel. If Hamas attempted to make life better for the people of Gaza, rather than terrorist, we would all be better off.
Following World War I, President Wilson’s proposed politics of “autonomy” devolved into only sovereign autonomy. The option for autonomy within federations (like, say, the British Commonwealth) lost currency. The Austria-Hungarian federation/dynasty, for all of its flaws, was dismembered and (some say) the resulting power vacuum in central Europe enabled Hitler to annex the German Sudetenland from the new Czechoslovakia. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!
Something has to happen in our post-modern world to reframe the entire conflict in the Middle East, and elsewhere.
And, neither a two-state nor a federated-state model is in the cards. Islam, of course, is a half-global cultural/religious identity, superficially subdivided under the nation-state idiom (Saudi Arabia remains a kingdom). Proxies Hamas and Hezbollah are embedded terrorist non-states infesting a Palestinian population. And, for its part, the West is a cultural/post-Christian identity that needs, as one analyst remarked on the eve of the European Union, “a purpose other than fatness.”
In the less precarious world of only a few decades back, historian Philip Jenkins speculated a remotely possible mediation role for the Papacy—coming as it does from before and outside the nation-state system. No longer even remotely likely. Although, the global spread of cardinal appointees, beginning under Pope Pius XII, might offer pause within a global and non-political matrix…assuming that the red hats and other successors of the Apostles can pick up where the real Vatican II left off. By outgrowing the navel-gazing circularity of the secularizing Synod on Synodality.
Might we say, at least, that there are no only-secular solutions to a fallen world?