How should Christians live in the midst of the conflict afflicting the Holy Land? That question is at the heart of a new pastoral letter from the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa. Source: Vatican News.
Released on Monday, the letter is titled, “They returned to Jerusalem with great joy: A proposal for living the vocation of the Church in the Holy Land.”
The vocation of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pizzaballa observes in the text, is to heal the world’s wounds. The Patriarch’s reflection revolves around the image of the Biblical city of Jerusalem, which “signifies coexistence and relationship, both civil and religious.”
The letter is structured in three parts: the first is an assessment of the state of the region, the second a vision for the Church of Jerusalem, and the third reflects on the pastoral implications on parishes, families, schools, and institutions.
Cardinal Pizzaballa emphasises that the letter does not contain strictly political analysis; it is “political” only in a broader sense, insofar as it concerns our remaining, as Christians, within the polis, or actually existing world, while always oriented toward the true and definitive Polis, the heavenly Jerusalem.
He begins with October 7 and the war in Gaza – “watershed events that brought one era to a close and opened another, doing so in the worst possible way”.
“What we are experiencing is not merely a local conflict,” he writes.
“The local conflict is the symptom of a much deeper crisis, a global paradigm shift. For decades, the international community, and particularly the Western world, believed in an international order based on rules, treaties, and multilateralism … Today, everyone seems to have woken up to the weakness in this system.
“We are witnessing a renewed reliance on the use of force as a decisive means for resolving disputes.”
Cardinal Pizzaballa writes that it is essential to reject “any complicity with the culture of violence,” while making room for trust. How is all this possible? The answer is simple: it is not – “At least, not alone. But we are not alone.”
Jesus awaits us, the Patriarch says, in our parishes, in our faith communities, in our groups and ecclesial movements. “In the end, what sustains us is not our own strength, but the joy of the Gospel,” he emphasises.
FULL STORY
Cardinal Pizzaballa: Jerusalem is called to heal the world’s wounds (By Beatrice Guarrera, Vatican News)
