Mois : décembre 2023

In Jesuit Fr. Bill Cain’s rendition of The Diary of Jesus Christ, we hear Jesus talk about listening to his mother sing her favorite song, the « Magnificat. » (We pray it today as our responsorial psalm.) Jesus challenges Mary, saying that the promises of the song may have been true, « once, a long time ago. » 

When she challenges him to do his part, he learns how very subversive it is to sing that the hungry will be filled and the rich sent away empty. The Magnificat isn’t a lullaby, but a prophetic proclamation.

Between Isaiah, Mary’s song, Paul’s message to the Thessalonians and the evangelist John’s description of John the Baptist, we get more than enough calls to prophecy in this last week before Christmas.

For ages, scholars have debated about the identity of the Servant of Isaiah’s songs (see Isaiah 42, 49, 50 and 51). The early Christians felt the servant described Jesus, the long-awaited, surprising, Messiah. Others suggest that the servant depicts Israel herself as God’s chosen. 

Today, especially in light of praying the Magnificat with Mary, we might look at how she and John the Baptist invite us to become servants of the Lord with them.

The first attitude we learn from Isaiah, Mary and John is that they focus on God. Isaiah says, « The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. » Mary sings, « My soul rejoices in God, my savior, » and the baptizer proclaims, « I am not the Christ … whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie. »

What would change in our lives if we would say with conviction, « The Spirit of the Lord is upon me »? 

Sometimes we may proclaim something like that by our conviction that our opinion is infallible. (The mother of one of my closest friends used to say, « I’ve thought about it, and I’m right! » Of course, her tongue was blatantly planted in her cheek as she said it.) 

Supposing that we’ve got it absolutely right ends up being the polar opposite of prophecy. Mary and John, our guides, remind us that prophets don’t proclaim their opinions. They invite others into an awareness of God’s love, of the gift of God’s Spirit; they proclaim that grace that awaits us just around the bend if only we will be open to it.

Secondly, as Mary in Cain’s book challenged the boy Jesus, the prophet calls us into an ever-greater awareness of the needs of others and our potential to respond. 

Isaiah’s servant, like Jesus, recognized that being anointed was a job description. They were to bear genuinely good news, to listen attentively to the sorrowful and to help free others from whatever might bind them.

Mary’s response, her open-ended « Here I am, thy will be done, » became her life’s orientation.

Paul preached the same message from a different angle when he said, « Do not quench the Spirit. » How often do we feel a twinge about not responding or not knowing how to respond to something that is going wrong? We think of hunger in the world, wars, division, or discrimination against others for their orientation, ethnicity, age, gender, etc., and we ask, « But what can I do? » 

The fact that the question even arises in us is a sign of the Spirit, who will never call us to try something we cannot do. 

Paul tells us, « Pray without ceasing. » If our prayer says, « Here I am, I come to do your will, » we will eventually understand what we can do, even if it is no more than to stand silently by another, never pretending to understand all that is going on in them.

Ultimately, John the Baptizer reminds us that the coming of God’s reign is gift and grace. We cannot make it happen any more than the rooster makes the sun rise. Nevertheless, like John, we can live like prophets, helping others catch a hint that there is something good afoot, something deeper, and more meaningful than society offers. That’s what it means to prepare the way. 

Today, the Spirit of the Lord urges us to rejoice because we know that the hungry can be fed and the brokenhearted healed. We rejoice because, like John, we can point toward a road that leads to something unimaginably wonderful. With Paul, we can proclaim one infallible message: « The one who calls you is faithful » and will lead creation into fulfillment.

Mary sings of what God is working in our midst, Isaiah describes it, John announces that it’s coming and Paul reminds us that God does great things, not just « once a long time ago, » but today, among and through us. That’s divinely subversive!

Pope Francis says he wants to be buried in the Rome basilica of St. Mary Major, not in the grottoes of the Vatican like other popes, so he can be near his favorite icon of the Madonna.

Francis, who turns 87 on Dec. 17, also said he never thought about resigning this year despite a series of health scares. He said he has a trip confirmed to Belgium next year and visits under consideration to Polynesia and his native Argentina.

« It is true that all journeys are now rethought, » Francis told N+ of Mexican broadcaster Televisa. « If they’re close by, they can be done. If they’re farther away they are rethought. There are limits. »

It was Francis’ first interview since his latest bout of acute bronchitis, which forced the cancellation of a trip this month to Dubai to participate in the U.N. climate conference. Francis, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, appeared in good form and said he was now recovered and feeling fine.

While the job of pope is for life, Francis reconfirmed the possibility of resignation and said he has to prepare for any possibility. « I ask the Lord to say enough, at some point, but when he wants me to, » he said.

Francis has already said if he retires, as Pope Benedict XVI did in 2013, he would want to live outside the Vatican somewhere in Rome in a residence for retired priests. Francis has long emphasized his role as bishop of Rome and has a particular devotion to an icon of the Virgin Mary on display in the St. Mary Major basilica near Rome’s main train station.

After every trip, for example, Francis goes to the basilica to pray before the Salus populi Romani (Salvation of the people of Rome), a Byzantine-style painting that features an image of Mary, draped in a blue robe, holding the infant Jesus who in turn is holding a jeweled golden book.

« It’s my great devotion, » Francis said, adding that he had already decided he wanted to be buried nearby in the basilica. « The place is already prepared. »

Francis had two bouts of bronchitis this year and was hospitalized for nine days in June to repair an abdominal hernia and have intestinal scar tissue removed. He has been using a wheelchair and cane for over a year due to strained knee ligaments.

Many popes are buried in tombs in the grottos underneath St. Peter’s Basilica or in side chapels of the basilica itself, including all of Francis’ recent predecessors.

On travel, Francis confirmed that a trip to his native Argentina was « pending » and that the country’s new president, Javier Milei, had invited him. Francis has been dogged by questions during his entire 10-year papacy about why he hasn’t returned home, questions that have only intensified following Milei’s unexpected victory.

During the campaign, the self-described « anarcho-capitalist » called Francis an « imbecile » for defending social justice and a « representative of malignance on Earth. »

Francis, who had a long conversation with Milei after he won, seemed to have forgiven him.

« In an election campaign, things are said ‘in jest’ — they are said seriously, but they are provisional things, things that are used to create a bit of attention, but which later fall away by themselves, » Francis said. « You have to distinguish a lot between what a politician says in the election campaign and what he or she is really going to do afterwards, because then comes the moment of concrete things, of the decisions. »

Francis’ planned visit to Belgium is to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the country’s two main Catholic universities. In a statement Dec. 13 welcoming Francis’ confirmation of the visit, Belgium’s bishops said Francis was expected to stay a day or two, with a date still to be determined.

The fatal stabbing of a Catholic priest inside the church rectory where he lived has rocked the eastern Nebraska community of Fort Calhoun, a one-stoplight town where people tend not to worry if they forget to lock their doors at night.

Fr. Stephen Gutgsell, who served at St. John the Baptist church, was attacked during what authorities called a break-in early Dec. 10. The 65-year-old died despite being rushed to an Omaha hospital. Authorities with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office arrested a man, who was still in the church rectory when they arrived six minutes after the priest called 911.

« It’s a crazy world I guess. Anything can happen to anybody, » said longtime Fort Calhoun resident Stephen Green, who said he did not know Gutgsell personally, but has attended Lenten fish fries at the church and sent his kids to vacation Bible school there.

By Dec. 11, the church nestled in a neighborhood a block away from the elementary school was clear of crime scene tape as it prepared to host a wake for one of its members, but the yellow plastic continued to encircle the rectory — the modest home next to the church.

A stack of church bulletins sat unused just outside the sanctuary — with a note from Gutgsell about how he had planned to preach about St. John the Baptist’s namesake on Dec. 10. On the way into town, the lighted sign along the highway welcoming visitors to Fort Calhoun asked for « prayers for our church and our community. »

Gutgsell was attacked just one day after the Christmas in Calhoun celebration, where many of the town’s residents celebrated with a full day of events including a Boy Scout pancake breakfast at St. John the Baptist. The small congregation of more than 250 families is an active one known for its fish fries during Lent and its vacation Bible school programs every summer.

Fort Calhoun hosts only about 1,000 residents, located about 16 miles (26 kilometers) north of Omaha. The town is best known for being home to Fort Atkinson, the first U.S. military post west of the Missouri River, where volunteers dress up in clothes from the period as part of a living history program. It is about 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Sioux City, Iowa, where authorities say the suspect in Gutgsell’s death was from.

But the priest’s stabbing was the second killing to happen this year in the small town.

« You know, there’s no murders forever and ever, and then all of a sudden, bam! » said Kevin Schultz, one of two pastors at the Cherry Hill church and ice cream shop on the main highway just a few blocks away from St. John the Baptist.

A day following the attack with little new details released, residents were left to speculate about Gutgsell’s killing. Prosecutors said they expect to file formal homicide and weapons charges on Dec. 12 against Kierre L. Williams, 43, who was arrested inside the rectory. He does not have a lawyer yet and likely won’t appear in court until Dec. 13.

« It seems like there’s more to the story, » Schultz said.

Court records in Iowa show Williams is facing a misdemeanor assault charge; he is accused of punching someone at a soup kitchen in Sioux City after getting in an argument in July. The criminal charge against him in that case lists him as homeless.

Green, who has lived in Fort Calhoun since he was 5 years old, said he has always known the town to be safe and he remembers riding his bike all over town when he was young. But he said the killing of Gutgsell — and the August killing of 71-year-old Linda Childers — are eye opening.

In August, Childers was found dead in her rural home in Fort Calhoun in what authorities believe was a home invasion by a man she did not know. In that case, William P. Collins has been charged with first-degree murder and other counts.

« It shouldn’t happen in a small town like this, » said Andy Faucher, who owns the Longhorn Bar and Grill where people gathered to eat and talk about what happened. Faucher said the fact that this latest killing involved a priest only « intensifies the scariness of the situation. »

On the evening of Dec. 10, the congregation held a vigil at St. John the Baptist to remember Gutgsell, who served at several different parishes across the Archdiocese of Omaha during his 39 years as a priest. In addition to leading St. John the Baptist in Fort Calhoun, Gutgsell helped at St. Francis Borgia in Blair, where the archbishop held a special service after the stabbing Dec. 10 and met with members of the congregation.

« We continue to pray that the Lord of mercy and love will welcome Father Gutgsell into his Heavenly kingdom, » Archbishop of Omaha George J. Lucas said in a statement. « May Our Blessed Mother intercede for us all as we grieve his death. »

The Archdiocese said Gutgsell was a native of Kansas City, Missouri, who graduated from the University of St. Thomas in 1980 and attended the St. Paul Seminary in Minnesota before joining the priesthood in 1984.

Funeral arrangements for Gutgsell are pending.

Kelly Tegels told KETV that she had just seen Gutgsell at Mass on the night of Dec. 9, so his death did not feel real yet.

« It’s going to be hard, » Tegels said at the vigil. « I’m bringing flowers tonight because he always had this altar decorated with flowers, and I know he would appreciate it. »

President Joe Biden is hosting a White House reception the evening of Dec. 11 to mark Hanukkah, celebrating the festival of lights as he has continued to denounce rising antisemitism in the U.S. and abroad amid the Israel-Hamas war.

The president, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will attend the event with nearly 800 guests. Invitees include Holocaust survivors, members of Congress, state and local officials, entertainers, and leaders from across the Jewish religious denominations, the White House says.

A menorah is lit nightly during the eight-day Jewish festival, which this year is being celebrated from Dec. 7 until Dec. 15.

The White House reception will be led by Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, Senior Rabbi at Central Synagogue in New York City, and feature menorah lighting by Emhoff and White House staff that are descendants of Holocaust survivors.

Biden plans to talk about how Hanukkah is a timeless story of miracles, and that — even in dark times — we can find the light, the White House says.

The Biden administration in May announced what it called the first-ever national strategy to counter antisemitism. That laid out more than 100 actions, including a series of steps to raise awareness and understanding of antisemitism and the threat it poses around the U.S.

Still, antisemitism has only intensified in some quarters since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and other militants sparked Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, which faces heightened criticism for the mounting Palestinian death toll. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned of an impending « humanitarian catastrophe » in Gaza and urged its members to demand an immediate humanitarian cease-fire.

The husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, Emhoff is the first Jewish person to be the spouse of one of the country’s nationally elected leaders. Last week, he presided over the lighting ceremony of a massive menorah in front of the White House to mark Hanukkah’s first night, saying then that American Jews are « feeling alone » and « in pain. »

The White House supported a since-expired, temporary pause in the fighting as Hamas released some of the hostages it held in Gaza, and is pushing for another truce — but the fighting continues in the meantime.

On Dec. 9, Liz Magill, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, resigned following pressure from donors and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say under repeated questioning that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy.

Universities across the U.S. have been accused of failing to protect Jewish students amid rising fears of antisemitism worldwide and fallout from the war in Gaza.

White House spokesman Andrew Bates declined to comment on Magill’s decision to resign. Presidents Claudine Gay of Harvard and Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who appeared alongside Magill, have also faced criticism. Gay has apologized for her remarks.

Bates noted that Magill issued a statement withdrawing her remarks.

« That was the right thing to do, » Bates said.

When I lived in Peru, I knew a holy woman who always led the town in the traditional novena that prepared them for their big feast. She had a wonderful voice and she projected it so that a large crowd could hear her read those prayers at something close to the speed of sound. Everyone came in with a great « Amen » at all the appropriate places.

For us sisters whose first language was English, understanding her recitations was quite a challenge. Eventually, we realized that something seemed off — the prayers didn’t make sense; we were calling on God to do some ungodly things.

When she sat down to explain the rituals to us, she realized that there were a couple of pages missing in her prayer book — she was skipping over very important parts that would have made sense of what came later. We enjoyed the irony that it took people who spoke poor Spanish to figure that out!

Today, we hear some of Isaiah’s most famous lines, « Prepare the way of the Lord! … The glory of the Lord shall be revealed. All people shall see it together. »

Handel has taught us a magnificent way to sing about this and there are easier versions in which we can lift our voices with the same message, but what does it mean? Is it just a nice song, or is it supposed to indicate something important in our lives? (How often do we pay such close attention to the words of our hymns and prayers that they change the way we live?)

The beginning of Mark’s Gospel offers us a perspective on preparing the way of the Lord. Mark tells us that John the Baptist proclaimed a « baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin. » 

Believe it or not, John and his message of conversion were immensely popular! Great joy doesn’t sound exactly like the emotion brought forth by a call to « repentance » and acknowledgement of sin. What’s going on?

John’s call to « repentance » wasn’t an invitation to penance. He was inviting people to see everything in life from a new perspective. Instead of concentrating on the past, on what they had done wrong or lost, John, like Isaiah, invited people to focus on God’s promised future — a future he told them was about to dawn.

What would that future be like? Not even John could really envision it —  he sent disciples to ask Jesus if he was the « one to come, or should we look for another? » 

Jesus didn’t fit the typical expectations for messiahs. To understand him, people had to return to Isaiah and ask about the servant he described. 

Isaiah wrote to people who imagined their lives as a desert wasteland. Life was dry, and arduous the road that led to unscalable mountains. Isaiah invited people under this depressing spell to listen to glad tidings, to discern the presence of God’s alluring love among them. 

It was not that mountains and valleys would actually disappear from their way, but the energy of divine grace would open their eyes to a future that would come into reality with each step they took toward it.

The repentance of which John and Jesus spoke did not look backward. It was a vision of an unimaginable different future so attractive that nobody need remain stuck or freeze another in their former ways. The « strong arm » of the Lord is not coercive; the rule of God is a hand up to those who desire the grace to move forward into the type of future for which we were created.

Today, between two major feasts of the Virgin Mary, we can look to her for inspiration. Her prayer, « Let it happen through me according to your word, » came not so much from a vision, but from trust that God had more in mind for her than she could imagine. 

Elizabeth proclaimed that in one simple phrase that could be translated as « Blessed are you who believed that God’s promise would be fulfilled » (Luke 1:45). 

The Second Letter of St. Peter says it this way: « Conduct yourselves in holiness and devotion … hastening the coming of the day of our God. »

The Second Sunday of Advent calls us into the sort of waiting that actually hastens the fulfillment of God’s reign among us. Like Mary — the Christian Scriptures’ counterpart of Abraham who forged into the unknown at God’s invitation — we are invited to believe so strongly in God’s future that we will not hesitate to risk what it takes for it to come about. Our daily prayer is simple and straightforward, « Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. » 

Will those words direct our lives or simply be rote phrases to which we can say, « Amen, » without feeling their power? 

She was surely the oddest Catholic author who ever lived. She went about London with her face powdered dead white, in vivid contrast to her natural carrot-colored hair, chopped off in front just above her eyebrows. Short in stature, she peered at the world through thick, round eyeglasses. She cursed like a longshoreman, liked to drink gin, and was rarely seen without a cigarette dangling from her lips. 

And yet Caryll Houselander inspired thousands with her urgent, compelling prose during and just after World War II. Her book The Reed of God is a lovely piece of Marian spirituality, still in print almost 80 years after publication. Houselander was especially popular in the United States where most of her books first appeared, since her publisher’s London office had been destroyed in the Blitz.

In Caryll Houselander: A Biography, Mary Frances Coady has done an excellent job of bringing Houselander back to life — a life particularly difficult to get a handle on because Houselander, like her mother before her, could be careless about facts when telling her own story. Her truncated autobiography, A Rocking Horse Catholic, was not initially distributed in Britain because her family complained of its errors and omissions. 

But Coady sorts it all out in this factual, carefully-researched biography. She tells of Houselander’s early years, the child of mismatched parents who divorced when Houselander was 11. She was a sensitive, artistic girl, totally unlike her impulsive mother, Gertrude. She spent her youth in convent schools, where she was sometimes considered a « freak » for her looks and mannerisms; but where she flourished. 

After moving to London with her mother and older sister, she attended art school for a time and went through a bohemian period, doing odd jobs to sustain herself. She decided the Catholic Church was hypocritical and walked away from it when asked to pay a fee for sitting in a pew.

Coady is especially sensitive to Houselander’s religious development. She was baptized as a young girl, went through an intensely devout phase, left the church briefly in early adulthood and came back after a vision in the London subway in which she saw Christ in all the travelers there. From that point on, Houselander’s books elaborated on the theme of Christ present, not just in saints; but in all persons — and in human history generally. 

As she wrote to wartime Londoners, « Because he [Christ] has made us ‘other Christs,’ because his life continues in each of us, there is nothing that any one of us can suffer which is not the passion he suffered. » In this way, her intuitive religious vision anticipated Pope Pius XII’s encyclical on the « Mystical Body of Christ. »

Houselander spent her early career as a struggling artist and woodcarver. Her first writing appeared in devotional periodicals, including The Grail magazine, where it was spotted by Frank Sheed and his wife Mazie Ward. Ward became a devotee of Houselander, constantly encouraging her to undertake new projects — including a novel late in life, and a treatise on guilt, neither of which was successful. But Houselander’s spiritual writing, now often overlooked, was devoured on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Ward also produced the first biography of Houselander shortly after her early death from cancer in 1954. Yet is not considered to be a reliable source because Ward accepted her friend’s stories at face value and prudishly glided over Houselander’s youthful affair with a British spy who went by the name of Sidney Reilly. Houselander was devastated when Reilly left her for another woman. She doesn’t mention it in her own autobiography, but for years afterward she kept Reilly’s photo at her bedside and even adopted Reilly’s first name, calling herself Sidone, or « Sid. »

Coady’s book restores Houselander to her rightful place in the history of spirituality, covering Reilly and all the other characters in Caryll’s colorful, fully-lived existence — including the living arrangement of « Gert, » her motorcycle-riding mother, with Iris Wyndham and her hoyden daughter Joan. 

For those who already know Houselander and those who want to meet her, this is a book for you.

The current war between Israel and Hamas may finally force a diplomatic solution to the long intractable tensions between the Israelis and the Palestinians in the Holy Land, said the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, 58, who has served as patriarch of Jerusalem since November 2020, said that while there have been constant conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians since the State of Israel was formed in 1948 and even earlier, this time, it feels very different, and a comprehensive political solution may be the only way to stop the ongoing bloodshed.

« It is a political conflict, first of all, that now is assuming more and more religious connotations, unfortunately. This makes things more difficult because religion is less open to any kind of compromise, » Pizzaballa told the Rhode Island Catholic, the newspaper of the Diocese of Providence, in an Oct. 27 interview at the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Pizzaballa said that now is the time for leaders to concentrate their efforts on finding a viable solution for all those living in the Holy Land, including the Palestinians living in the West Bank as well as the Gaza Strip.

While the focus of the war has been on the Gaza Strip, after Hamas terrorists breached the border and killed more than 1,200 Israelis and people of other nationalities and kidnapped about 240 others in a brazen attack on Oct. 7, Palestinians living in the West Bank have become increasingly agitated.

They are decrying what they feel is Israel’s disproportionate use of force in its goal to dislodge and decimate Hamas in Gaza, ending the terror organization’s 16-year rule over the coastal enclave, since it ousted the Palestinian Authority in 2007. The Palestinian Authority still controls parts of the West Bank. The latest figures released by the Gaza Health Ministry indicate that more than 16,000 Palestinians overall have been killed, of them more than 3,000 children.

The IDF has also gone into the West Bank in search of Hamas operatives who are known to reside there, and outbreaks of violence have erupted. Tourism has all but ceased in Bethlehem, leading to the closure of many local businesses that support visitors, according to a local Catholic pastor there.

Pizzaballa feels that the time is now for political leaders to finally make good on slogans that have only paid lip service to resolving the long-term conflict.

« I think that, first of all, what is missing over the last 20 years is a lack of projects. We need a political project for these two peoples. A Two-State Solution was a slogan without content for many years. Now, we have to give to this slogan some content, » he said.

« Now, it is quite difficult, but this situation reminds us that it is necessary to find a solution, » he said.

The Latin patriarch has visited Gaza several times, with his last visit there being about seven months ago. He described the bleak conditions that many of the 2.2 million people living in the Gaza Strip — which is approximately six miles wide and 25 miles long — endure each day. Of those 2.2 million, there are about 1,000 Christians living in Gaza.

« The situations they are living in are very problematic, but, at the same time, I saw a very serene community, a Christian Catholic community. It is the smallest community and the less-complaining community. They are aware that they are much supported by us, » Pizzaballa said.

While the Christian community in Gaza is exponentially smaller than the Muslim community among the 2.2 million residents — nearly 90% of whom are currently displaced from their homes by the war — it has had an outsized footprint on everyday life there.

According to Joseph Hazboun, regional director of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association’s Jerusalem Field Office, CNEWA has been providing support to 17 local agencies working in the health, education and social services sectors of the areas they serve. The organization served between 300,000 and 400,000 people a year. It’s not their numbers; it’s their services that they provide, » Hazboun said in an interview with Rhode Island Catholic.

Pizzaballa said that Christians have mostly had normal relations with Muslims in Gaza.

« They try to have as good a friendship as possible, but of course they also have the radical ones, » he said, noting the existence of some radical factions among the Muslims who would rather disrupt peaceful relations with Christians than promote them.

« You can build your relations with those that are accepting you, » he added.

Pizzaballa was in Rome on Oct. 7 and said he had not yet received the news of the brutal attack on Israel until he was called by a priest in Jerusalem for an official comment.

Before he left to return to Jerusalem, the patriarch spoke with Pope Francis about the unfolding situation.

« He expressed to me his sorrow and pain and said that I should do everything to stop this war and to try reconciling the positions as much as possible, » Pizzaballa said.

« The pope is only repeating what he has been writing all along, that war is a defeat, any war is a defeat, » Pizzaballa added.

When the cardinal arrived back in Jerusalem, the tenor felt different from previous conflicts he had experienced in the Holy Land since he had entered the first of several positions he had held there since 1990.

« There was a level of perception that this is something new and that maybe, with time, it will become clearer, » he said.

The cardinal released a pastoral letter to the faithful of his diocese, condemning acts of violence and calling for a just and lasting peace in the Holy Land.

He denounced unequivocally the « atrocity » that Hamas wrought upon Israel on Oct. 7, noting that violence is not compatible with the message of the Gospel and will never bring peace.

At the same time, Pizzaballa called for an end to the « decades of occupation » and « a clear and secure national perspective to the Palestinian people, » which he said is the only way that a serious peace process can begin.

« We owe it to the many victims of these days and to those of years past, » he said. « We do not have the right to leave this task to others. »

In the context of a media interview, which he granted shortly after his return from Rome, Pizzaballa suggested that he would offer to trade himself for the hostages held by Hamas. The news went viral, traveling around the world almost immediately, even before he had a chance to discuss it with his superiors.

But the Latin patriarch feels that one must always be bold and assert their message of truth, regardless of how political officials may react.

« It is difficult, of course, because we are in very polarized positions, » Pizzaballa said. « Everyone wants you to say what they want to hear, while I have to say and what I feel in conscience I need to say according to the Gospels. And that is not immediately understood. »