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(LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa is “hopeful” but “not optimistic” about the future of the Holy Land given the trajectory of the war in the region.
“I don’t see leadership with vision. Violence produces just violence,” His Eminence told EWTN this week. “All the previous agreements, ideas, the prospective two-state solution, everything is not realistic now.”
EXCLUSIVE: “I don’t see leadership with vision. Violence produces just violence.” Cardinal Pizzaballa of the Holy Land tells me that he believes all previous ideas and suggestions, including the two-state solution, are not realistic now.
In terms of peace, “That train has left… pic.twitter.com/hb9KSlqeCA
— Colm Flynn (@colmflynnire) October 21, 2024
Pizzaballa has taken on a global media profile since fighting broke out last October following a Hamas terror attack on Israeli citizens that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly knew about ahead of time and allowed it to occur in order to provoke a wider war.
A possible leading candidate at the next conclave, Pizzaballa has repeatedly called for the “occupation” of Palestine to end and has urged Christians to fast and pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary so the fighting will stop.
During his sit down with reporter Colm Flynn, Pizzaballa, who is only 59, showed that he has a firm grasp of the facts on the ground.
“It’s not realistic to talk about peace. Now, what we have to first of all talk about is a cease-fire, to stop any kind of violence,” he said. “Peace is an attitude, it is not just an agreement.”
His Eminence said there needs to be “new leadership with vision” in both the political and religious arenas before peace will take place, a likely indirect criticism of Netanyahu, who has repeatedly rejected international resolutions passed at the United Nations to bring the conflict to a halt.
“You need new language, but you cannot have new language if you don’t have new people, new names, new faces,” Pizzaballa said.
Over the past year, Pizzaballa has courageously shined a light on the many crimes being carried out by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), which attacked a Catholic school in July. He has also condemned their devastating attacks on Gaza which have displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians and have created what he called a “nightmare” scenario.
In neighboring Lebanon, Israeli forces fired on U.N. peacekeepers earlier this month. Meanwhile, in Gaza, the Israeli Defense Forces carried out a strike on a school, killing at least 27 people, including a child and seven women.
In his remarks to EWTN, Pizzaballa added that this is the “worst period” over the past 35 years due to the “proportion, the impact, also the emotional impact on the population, Israelis and Palestinians, and now in Lebanon, which is enormous.”
Pizzaballa was further asked what Christians across the world can do to help his people. He responded by urging them to “pray” but also “support the Christians community as much as they can.” He added that “Palestinians and Israelis are called by God to live one close to another, not against the other. And they have to rediscover their call.”
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