Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, has returned to Jerusalem from Rome with the assistance of Israeli and Jordanian authorities.
“I was certainly expecting an increase in violence, but certainly not in these forms, to this extent and with this brutality,” he said. “I also found so much anger and so much expectation to receive a word of guidance, of comfort, and also of clarity about what is happening. In short, I found a country that has changed a great deal and very quickly.”
The prelate called on the international community to “start looking again at the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian issue with more attention than it has shown so far. And it must work hard to calm the situation, to bring the parties to reasonableness through mediations that are not necessarily public, because public ones will never work.”
“We need support, to condemn all forms of violence, to isolate the violent, and to work relentlessly for a ceasefire,” he added. “Because as long as weapons speak, it will not be possible to hear other voices.”