December 24, 2023 at 5:54 p.m. EST![]()
The Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the highest Catholic clergyman within the Holy Land, as he arrives on the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem West Financial institution, on, Sunday, Dec. 24. (Heidi Levine/for The Washington Put up)Remark in this storyCommentAdd in your stored storiesSaveBETHLEHEM, West Financial institution — On Christmas Eve, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, entered into this historical town thru a clanking steel gate constructed right into a prime concrete wall beside an Israeli military watchtower scorched through petrol bombs and lined with graffiti.The cardinal got here in a procession from Jerusalem to Bethlehem within the occupied West Financial institution to mention middle of the night Mass on the Church of the Nativity, the sixth century basilica constructed upon the grotto the place custom holds that Jesus used to be born.In his homily, he spoke of “hatred, resentment and the spirit of revenge” in our hearts. He requested the folk to search for the sunshine. It used to be that more or less Christmas Eve right here.Right now of yr, Bethlehem must be blazing with gentle and music. On Sunday the temper used to be quiet and darkish, the general public celebrations canceled on account of the conflict in Gaza. There have been no parades, no carols, no Christmas bushes.The middle of the night Mass used to be stuffed with native Palestinian Christians who would no longer usually ranking a seat.The Latin patriarch oversees the Catholic church buildings of Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, in addition to the West Financial institution and Gaza. He’s Pope Francis’s consultant within the Holy Land. It’s no simple process.After he handed throughout the Israeli checkpoint in a VW sedan, his entourage drove throughout the half-empty streets coated with half-empty stores, previous a facsimile of a Banksy mural that confirmed a peace dove dressed in a flak jacket. There have been scattered Palestinian forces retaining rebel shields they didn’t want. No person coated the roads.At Manger Sq. within the heart of the city, the place a large Christmas tree in most cases stands, there used to be just a somber crèche — with grey ghostly figures representing the holy circle of relatives, surrounded through barbed cord and strewn rubble, with a child wrapped in a white shroud.The patriarch, for the primary time, wore a black-and-white kaffiyeh, a logo of Palestinian nationalism, round his neck, atop his purple gowns. Typically, the spiritual chief is heralded through loads of marching Palestinian Boy Scouts, enjoying bagpipes, very enthusiastically. This yr a lone troop used to be given the respect of escort, and the younger scouts had been silent, retaining indicators studying, “we wish existence, no longer demise” and “blessed are the peace makers.”Earlier than he entered the Church of the Nativity, the cardinal stopped and spoke a couple of phrases to the small crowd, most commonly to newshounds. “We need to forestall the bombing,” he mentioned. “To convey other folks again to standard existence. I will be able to’t say again to their properties, as a result of they’ve no properties to return to.”The patriarch, who’s Italian, has additionally spoken in opposition to the brutal assaults through Palestinian militants on Oct. 7. Previous within the conflict, he presented himself as much as be exchanged for Israeli youngsters taken hostage through Hamas.On the Church of St. Catherine, adjoining to the Nativity grotto, the Rev. Louis Salman, head of Palestinian Catholic adolescence teams, mentioned, “You don’t assume youngsters perceive the conflict in Gaza, however they do. They perceive the distress.”In his homily on the middle of the night Mass, the patriarch spoke to these “in mourning and weeping and looking ahead to a concrete gesture of closeness and care.”“At this second our ideas can’t be a ways from those that have misplaced the whole lot on this conflict,” he mentioned, “who at the moment are displaced, by myself and paralyzed through their grief. My ideas move, with out difference, to all who’re suffering from this conflict, in Palestine and Israel and the entire area.”“My ideas move to Gaza and its 2 million population. Actually the phrases, ‘There used to be no room for them,’ describe their state of affairs,” he mentioned.For many years the Palestinians had been looking ahead to the world group to search out answers to finish the career underneath which they’re compelled to reside, the patriarch mentioned, however “it sort of feels to me that every people is entrapped through his personal ache. Hatred, resentment and the spirit of revenge occupy the entire area in our hearts and go away no room for the presence of others. But, we’d like others.”
