Pope Francis decided to make Pierbattista Pizzaballa a Cardinal.
This is the second time, since the restoration of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem in the 19th century, that a patriarch will become a cardinal.
It is a strong message for Israel at a time when the fate of the Christians of the Holy Land has deteriorated significantly since Benyamin Netanyahu’s return to power.
Pierbattista Pizzaballa will be created cardinal at the next ordinary public consistory to be held in the Vatican on September 30, 2023. “It was a big surprise for me,” he said in the wake of the July 9 papal announcement.
Among his predecessors – and since the re-establishment of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem in 1847 – only Archbishop Filippo Camassei received such an honor, in 1919, in a context marked by the First World War. Several reasons explain the decision of the Pontiff.
First, by strengthening the status of the Latin patriarch, the Holy See intends to emphasize the importance of the Catholic presence in Jerusalem at a time when the Palestinian Catholics of the Old City are the object of many vexations on the part of fundamentalist Jews supported by the government of Benyamin Netanyahu: churches and cemeteries desecrated, businesses ransacked, the faithful and priests insulted and physically assaulted.
Christians and even the Church are victims of attempts to plunder their property.
The decision taken by the Holy See could thus facilitate the ongoing negotiations with the Jewish State to obtain an exemption from the housing tax on the churches of the Holy Land, as far as the status of cardinal can impress the negotiators.
Secondly, the creation of the current Patriarch as a cardinal will enable the Vatican to increase its involvement in the region and perhaps regain control of a peace process that seems more than ever to be dead in the water.
Moreover, in announcing the holding of the next consistory, Pope Francis has made an appeal for calm in the context of West Bank tensions.
It may well be that the elevation of Pizzaballa is intended to prepare the ground for an upcoming apostolic visit to the Holy Land by the Pope.
The last visit was in 2014.
The Holy Father had indeed planned to set foot on the Israel’s soil last year, but his visit was been cancelled due to the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
It should nevertheless be mentioned that, despite his qualities and success in a difficult position, the future cardinal criticized Christianity at a symposium held from April 20 to 23 in Cyprus.
Seeing the harm that the intrusion of politics into religion in the Middle East could do, he generalized using these words: “The alliance between the throne and the altar has never done any good, either to the throne or to the altar,” which is completely inaccurate and contrary to the doctrine of the Church.
On the other hand, the patriarch did not hesitate to denounce the attitude of the Israeli government, accused of stoking Jewish extremists hatred against the Christians of the Holy Land, whose living conditions continue to decline.