Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin-rite Patriarch of Jerusalem, expressed dismay about the campus protests in the US about the war in Gaza, in remarks to reporters during a visit to Rome.
Cardinal Pizzaballa, who was in Rome to take formal possession of the titular church assigned to him when he was made a cardinal, spoke about the suffering of the people in the Holy Land, and his hope that “something will start to change. But he said of the campus protests:
I confess that I struggle to understand it. Universities are places where cultural engagement, even heated, even harsh, must be open 360 degrees, where engagement with strong ideas that are completely different, must be expressed not with violence, not with boycotts, but knowing how to engage.