Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, has arrived in Gaza to celebrate Christmas with the local Christian community. Father Gabriel Romanelli reported this through a post on the social network X.
As the priest explains, the cardinal’s visit aims to learn firsthand about the pastoral and human needs of the Holy Family parish, the only Catholic parish in the Gaza Strip, which has been hosting numerous Christian families for months amid the situation marked by war, precariousness, and constant insecurity.
The disseminated images show the Latin Patriarch sharing time with the faithful, participating in liturgical celebrations, and visiting the parish facilities, which have become a true refuge for the small but persevering local Christian community. In one of the most significant moments, the cardinal appears praying before the nativity scene installed in the church, a symbol of a Christmas lived in extraordinarily difficult circumstances.
An invitation to visit the Holy Land
During his recent visit to the United States, Pizzaballa has taken advantage of his stay to ask that international attention not divert from the Christians in the Holy Land, who face direct consequences of the conflict and also serious economic problems. In Gaza, for example, more than 80% of homes have been destroyed and the Christian community faces enormous difficulties in accessing food, medicines, and basic services.
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In the West Bank, including Bethlehem, the collapse of tourism and the loss of work permits in Israel have dramatically affected the lives of many Palestinian Christian families, reducing sources of income and exacerbating the economic-social crisis.
Therefore, the cardinal has insisted on the importance of resuming pilgrimages to the Holy Land, not only for their spiritual value, but for their direct impact on the subsistence of local communities, whose economies largely depend on the flow of Christian visitors.