The Israeli police prevented Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the head of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, from celebrating Mass this Palm Sunday at the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. This event, according to the church itself, “has no precedent in centuries.” Pizzaballa, along with the Custos of the Holy Land, Father Francesco Ielpo, “were detained en route while traveling privately and without any characteristics of a procession or ceremonial act, and they were forced to return.” This incident occurs against the backdrop of the Middle East conflict. The communiqué, reproduced by several international agencies and to which the Argentine News Agency had access, highlights that “for the first time in centuries, the heads of the Church were prevented from celebrating the Palm Sunday Mass in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.” The text from the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem in conjunction with the Custody of the Holy Land states that “this incident constitutes a dangerous precedent and shows a lack of consideration for the sensitivity of billions of people around the world who, during this week, look toward Jerusalem.” “The heads of the Churches have acted with full responsibility, and since the beginning of the war, have complied with all imposed restrictions: public meetings were cancelled, attendance was prohibited, and celebrations were organized to be broadcast to hundreds of millions of the faithful worldwide,” the communiqué emphasized. Preventing the cardinal and the Custos, who hold the highest ecclesiastical responsibility for the Catholic Church and the Holy Places, “constitutes a manifestly unreasonable and disproportionately severe measure,” the statement added. “This hasty and fundamentally erroneous decision, tainted by improper considerations, represents an extreme deviation from the basic principles of reasonability, freedom of worship, and respect for the status quo,” the text added.
