Commissariat of the Holyland

At the beginning of February, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, received a group of Italian pilgrims who had come as part of the Jubilee 2025, "Pilgrims of Hope". This was the common thread that nourished the dialogue between the Patriarch and the pilgrims.

Interview by Daniele Rocchi
March 6, 2025

Your Eminence, we are in a Holy Year dedicated to hope. How can we speak of hope in a land marked by violence and war?

In the Holy Land, we must not fall into the temptation to confuse hope with a political solution to the conflict, a solution that we may never see, or only generations after us. They are two different things. Hope is not a slogan, but a way of seeing and living life. When I meet people, it is difficult to talk about hope in the current context, because you have to be concrete. We are the children of the Incarnation, our faith must be able to say something concrete in real life, and not abstract.

Hope cannot be separated from faith, which is its foundation. This also applies at the secular level. A sign of hope is the people I meet: it is true that there is a lot of evil, just think of the violence of this last year and a half, but there are also many people who continue to give their lives. There are so many righteous people for whom it is worth getting involved. There is another sign of hope that we must not forget...

Which one?

To hope, here in the Holy Land, also means to keep the road open for the future, to be aware of the other as he is, and not as we would like him to be. As a Church, we have 'lived' the war outside and inside, there are different ways of looking at the conflict.

In this last war, we had Christians both in the army and among the population of Gaza. It was not easy to manage this diversity of opinion. We used clear, honest and sincere language, but without closing the door to dialogue and relationships.

Erecting barriers is useless, because in contexts like this, you have to dialogue with everyone. It is a question of being aware of it without giving up.

The truce in Gaza and Lebanon seems to be holding, but as you have said many times, a truce is not the end of the conflict. So what is needed to put an end to this war and ease tensions in the West Bank?

We need a new vision and a new leadership. Today, I do not think that we are in a position to start serious and constructive discussions about the future. In the short term, we obviously have to act, but we also have to work on the long term, because I don't think the end of the conflict is near.

We also need to clarify what we want to do, where we want to go and what we can concretely achieve. These discussions cannot take place without new interlocutors.

You have often stressed that, once the war is over, it will require new political and religious leadership, new faces and a different language. After about 16 months of war, do you still think that this renewal is possible?

On the need for new leadership, there is little discussion to be had. With all due respect, I do not believe that Abu Mazen and Netanyahu are the men capable of having an open vision of the future. Politics is also based on a religious vision and narrative.

Israeli settlers have a very clear religious narrative. We need a religious leadership that can develop a vision of the Holy Land that is solid, serious, and based on Scripture – a different narrative than the settlers. This work is essential to allow, at the cultural and interreligious level, to have a different and meaningful discourse.

What is the situation in the Latin parish of the Holy Family, which hosts about 500 Christian refugees?

With the truce, the situation in Gaza has changed. The Christians breathe a little, the bombs no longer fall. In recent days, the refugees from the parish have been able to go out to see what was left of their homes.

Almost all of them were razed to the ground, the luckiest found them partially destroyed and uninhabitable, without water, electricity, or sewage system. So they all returned to the parish, where they found a roof over their heads, food and school.

Now begins the time for questions about their future and that of the Gaza Strip. In the coming months, we will see more clearly. But it doesn't all depend on us. Even if we had the means to rebuild, we need to understand what can be rebuilt and where.

Rebuilding a house when there is nothing around makes no sense, we have to wait and see if there is a plan, if the borders will be opened, for whom and under what conditions. This is the most difficult phase: understanding how to start over.

Did you feel the closeness of the universal Church during this war?

Yes, certainly. It has manifested itself in a concrete way, and we have made it public. The help we received allowed us to do things that we would not have been able to do otherwise, such as bringing food into Gaza, not only for Christians, but for all those in need.

When we launched an appeal for Gaza, we received immense solidarity from the faithful of our diocese and from the Churches around the world – Africa, the Far East. For us, it was a gesture of closeness that touched us deeply.

Did October 7 have an impact on dialogue with the Jews?

It is a fact: since October 7, we have not been able to meet. That day changed everything. We must now rebuild our relations and look together for ways to rebuild them.

In the face of an uncertain future, how can we overcome the fear within the Christian community?

We must continue to work, pray and dialogue. To our communities, I always tell you to act as if war doesn't exist. Even in Gaza, the parish of the Holy Family continues as before: liturgy, prayer, school, humanitarian assistance.

We must not allow war to dictate our choices.

Last question: Pope Francis has expressed the wish for a common date for Easter. What do you think?

Relations between the churches here are much better than they used to be. The work on the Holy Sepulchre, carried out by the La Sapienza University of Rome in collaboration with the three communities that administer the basilica, is a clear example of this.

For us, the relationship with other Churches is a pastoral mission. All the families are mixed and want the Easter unification, which we have already achieved in part in Jordan and Cyprus.

We know that when dealing with civil authorities, we must speak with one voice – whether on taxes, politics or any other issue.

Article translated with permission from TERRESainte.net, original permission given by Daniele Rocchi, special envoy to Jerusalem of the Catholic Agency Sir