"The Holy Land is the fifth Gospel. I also like to call it a kind of eighth sacrament, because it allows you to experience an encounter with Jesus, physically, that you can touch," said the cardinal.
Cardinal Pizzaballa is the Latin Patriarch of Jersualem.
While the Church leader acknowledged that a pilgrimage to the Holy Land is absolutely not required for one to be a "good Christian," he said a person who visits the Holy Land will see their faith become "stronger and more concrete."
"So I encourage everyone to come to the Holy Land, to have this wonderful experience of encounter with Jesus Christ and his humanity," he said.
These pilgrimages, Cardinal Pizzaballa added, are "absolutely safe" now that the ceasefire is in effect and major conflicts have ended.
War's impact on pilgrimages
Since the start of the Gaza War on October 7, 2023, the pilgrimage industry in the Holy Land had largely collapsed, to the detriment of both the Israeli and Palestinian economies.
In 2024, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism reported the foreign tourism sector lost $4.675 billion in U.S. dollars since the previous year.
For the Palestinian economy, the lack of pilgrimages the first year of the Gaza War resulted in losses of roughly $2 million per day, said Jeries Qumsieh, spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.