Cardinal Pizzaballa: Hope for peace in the Holy Land is growing!

Cardinal Pizzaballa: Hope for peace in the Holy Land is growing!

In the Holy Land, Christians are a strongly endangered minority and only make up 1.5 percent of the population. Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, urgently demands a specific plan to restore peace after the devastating conflicts of the past few months. In an interview with

The economic situation of Christians continues to worsen dramatically. According to Cardinal Pizzaballa, over 100 Christian families have left the Holy Land since the beginning of the war, which is another alarming sign for the already shrunk Christian community. The main interests of the church lie in humanitarian support and interreligious dialogue. It is particularly important for the cardinal that Christians are actively working on holding the community together instead of being split from the conflicts, as he was in a contribution for Vatican News explained. The interreligious dialogue is of central importance for maintaining peace and understanding between Jews, Muslims and Christians, especially in view of the current tensions and deeply rooted distrust in the region.

Although the cardinal is optimistic to achieve a compromise in the current ceasefire, it remains realistic: "The highlight of the war is behind us," he emphasizes, adding that the reconstruction can not only be physical in nature, but also have to redesign the relationships between people. The current challenges require a rethink beyond peace that goes beyond political solutions and relies on the need for cohesion and understanding.