Who is admittedly Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the cardinal papabile from Jerusalem? | EUROtoday

On May 6, 2025

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L‘Man, very massive, imposes himself by his easy presence. He speaks with out results. He doesn’t search to please or put oil on the hearth. He prefers to hear, encourage, instill hope and act. Born in a small village close to Bergamo, in northern Italy, Pierbattista Pizzaballa is aware of very younger that he needs to be a priest.

At 13, he entered the small seminar. At 19, he joined the Franciscans. At 25, he’s ordained a priest. His Franciscan superior then despatched him to Jerusalem, towards his will, to review the Bible. The shock is double. “It was very onerous, the primary intifada was not over. I had by no means seen a rifle in my life. The day after my arrival, there have been twenty Palestinian individuals. That was, that was my baptism within the Holy Land! He defined to me in 2004, throughout our first assembly. And then, he knew nothing concerning the Jewish world. “In my childhood, I never met a Jew,” he mentioned.

Read too The ten “papabili” which might succeed Pope FrancisThe younger priest is the fruit of the Church which blossoms on the finish of the Council of Vatican II in 1965-the 12 months of his delivery, he likes to underline-, this Church which decides to show “the Judeity of Jesus and the Primitive Church” and ends the speculation of the deicide individuals. This council and its closing declaration, Nostra aetate (“In our time”) are for him “one of the most important events in the contemporary history of the Catholic Church”.

A conviction that the Israeli-Palestinian battle, as tragic as it’s, doesn’t query, whereas others evaluate the struggling of Jesus to that of the Palestinians. For him, it’s “a shame to combine political analysis and the idea of the Jewish people of deicide, a feeling deeply rooted in Christian consciences which has done a lot of wrong to the Jewish people during history. »»

The only personality to have gone to Gaza in 2024

Arrived in Jerusalem, he learned Hebrew, studies biblical theology among the Franciscans and then at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “In classes, the questions had been dashing in all places. We are usually not used to such freedom of speech in Christian colleges. In use, their freedom gave me mine, particularly that of loving these two peoples, Israeli and Palestinian, and to wish to present them. »»

For him, these phrases have the worth of dedication, stronger than ever for the reason that blast attributable to the assaults of October 7. Thus, from October 16, 2023, it provided to take the place of Israeli youngsters chosen hostages by Hamas within the Gaza Strip. He is the one character to have visited the warfare within the Gaza Strip in 2024-to Pentecost after which at Christmas-to breathe hope right into a thousand Christians and, past, to all of the Palestinians of Gaza, who don’t have anything.

Read too Christophe Dickès: “White smoke will appear on May 9 at the latest” Young, Italian, Franciscan, Hébréophone, buddy of the Jews, as many traits which might deprive him of treasured voices throughout the conclave. However, it might not be the primary time he would have been chosen when he has not had the profile. In 1999, he formally joined the Custody of the Holy Land which introduced collectively all of the Franciscans of the area together with Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Rhodes, Cyprus and a part of Egypt; A key step.

Five years later, his life modified. While he’s vicar of the Hébréophone Catholic neighborhood and near Israeli society, his friends select him as Custode, a selection ratified by John Paul II. At simply 39, he turned some of the essential Christian personalities of the Holy Land. He will deeply reform custody, particularly his funds. Since the thirteenth^e A century, the Custody welcomes pilgrims and manages the Holy Christian locations.

New drama in 2016. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, M^gr Fouad Twal, retired whereas his third time period at Custody ends him. Pope Francis appoints him Apostolic Administrator of Latin patriarchy “until the appointment of a new patriarch”. In different phrases, he directs the establishment however has neither the title nor the honors of the operate. A hybrid system to calm those that criticize this selection understanding that his two predecessors had been Arab. Ordained bishop of Jerusalem in September 2016, he is not going to be appointed patriarch of Jerusalem, in good and due type, in 2020.

Friend of Jews and Palestinians

In the meantime, the person has confirmed himself. “Many of those who had resistances – simple faithful or members of the local church – have gotten used to it and above all are grateful to having assured the situation of the patriarchy which was heavily indebted,” welcomes an Arab member of the Latin Church. And as a part of the Israeli-Palestinian battle, he by no means took sides for one another. He testified to an amazing diplomatic and human talent. He managed to remain in contact with either side. »»

On September 30, 2023, the Pope created him Cardinal, a primary for a energetic Latin patriarch. For Etienne Lepicard, a French Catholic physician put in in Israel since 1986 and who has identified the “papabile” for the reason that Nineties, the person has the material of a pope: “He is a real pastor, close to people. And since he was at the head of Latin patriarchy, we feel that he has given his life to the Church. »»

Read too Why the conclave that will name the next pope will be more unpredictablePierbattista Pizzaballa is an Italian who spent more than half of his life in Jerusalem: “It is a fantastic mixture between Europe and the remainder of the world, between the West and the international locations of the South, which might deliver collectively numerous cardinals on its title”, notes Karma Ben Johanan, historian and professor within the Department of Comparative Religion of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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Answer

Thus, Pizzaballa would embody two inside forces within the church. For Louis-Marie Coudray, prior of the Benedictine neighborhood of Abu Gosh, arrived in Israel in 1976 and former director of the National Service for Relations with Judaism (SNRJ) of the Conference of Bishops of France (2016-2019), “The election in Rome of Pierbattista Pizzaballa, bishop of Jerusalem, can be a unprecedented return to the supply. We have not seen this from Saint-Pierre. It can be the that means of the Church, each an indication of rooting and opening ”.

Press correspondent in Jerusalem for 20 years, Catherine Dupeyron is the creator of Christians within the Holy Land – Disappearance or Mutation

(Albin Michel editions)
https://www.lepoint.fr/monde/qui-est-vraiment-pierbattista-pizzaballa-le-cardinal-papabile-venu-de-jerusalem-06-05-2025-2588955_24.php