CV NEWS FEED // The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa met with Pope Francis this week in Rome, according to Vatican News, to discuss “the humanitarian situation of the Christian community in Gaza and in the Holy Land more generally,” and “the state of dialogue in the region and the prospects for peace.”
After the meeting with Francis, Vatican News reported on January 15 that Pizzaballa told reporters “that he is in regular contact with Gaza’s Catholic parish, which is in the north of the Strip, where there is now less fighting.”
“Military operations have moved further south,” Pizzaballa told reporters, “but it remains an area where there is nothing: there are no houses, there is no water, there is no electricity, there is nothing. It is a situation of extreme poverty, and there are no institutions present.”
Pizzaballa added that Gaza’s Christians are “living through the same situation as everyone else,” Vatican News reported:
“They are not a people apart,” he said, and although the fact of being a “small minority, a very small number” weighs on them, their situation is “a microcosm of the difficulties that the whole population is experiencing.”
“It is not easy, even for the Christians, to be in a situation of great division where everyone is expected to take sides,” Pizzaballa said.
Pizzaballa added that in working towards the end of the Hamas-Israel war, “We have to think in stages… There will be no immediate solution. What is important now is to find channels of communication between the two sides. Between Israel and Hamas.”
In October 2023 Pizzaballa courageously offered himself in exchange for children taken hostage by Hamas, and called for a worldwide day of prayer and fasting for peace.
After the meeting with Francis, Pizzaballa also told reporters that Jordan is “the most stable reference point” for the Catholic Church, and added that “there is collaboration, a minimum of collaboration, with humanitarian organizations, too, and with Egypt.”
“The situation in Jordan is complex, but I must say that it is the only country that is stable from a political as well as a humanitarian point of view… When we need to get humanitarian aid to Gaza, our address is the Jordanian Royal House,” Pizzaballa said, according to Vatican News:
The Patriarch reported that he has spoken with King Abdallah, the Jordanian government, and various institutions “to see if we can keep the channels of communication alive with Gaza and also with the little authority that is left there.”
