SANCTIFYING OFFICE
Centrality of the Word of God
According to those who have worked closely with him, what “undoubtedly” keeps the cardinal focused, especially amid conflict, “is his devotion to meditating on the word of God.” Close collaborators also observe that his “teaching and preaching, his public addresses and his messages have at their very core the Gospel.”
Pizzaballa’s perspective is not so much one of exegesis as of a living encounter with Christ through Scripture. “The Word of God is a love letter written for us by Him who knows us like no one else: by reading it, we hear His voice again and receive His message for us,” he told the faithful in January 2024, encouraging them to celebrate the Sunday of the Word of God.
“Without the relationship with Scripture,” he confessed to Italian priests and seminarians in early 2024, “in these months [of war] I would be lost. (…) It is a Word that gives life, that guides you and sustains you.”
The cardinal maintains that “We, especially Catholics, are very good at pastoral programs and so many other activities, which are good. But we need to recover a relationship with the Word of God, because in this—naturally together with the Eucharist and the Sacraments—we find the source and font of our hope, and of our relationship with Jesus. When we lose everything, the only thing we can hold on to is this relationship, which helps us not so much to resolve problems but to remain in them with that comfort and that presence. We need to touch, but we also need to listen to the Word, which comes into us and introduces us into a relationship, and this is the heart of the life of faith.”
Liturgy
The Patriarch normally uses the Latin language for solemn celebrations,1Examples include the Mass on Easter Sunday 2019, when he was still Apostolic Administrator (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic9QV-6H-fg), his first Pontifical Mass as Patriarch in 2020 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxzDgLusb5w) or the Midnight Mass on Christmas 2023 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_3ZZFZmlCM). In 2023, the priestly ordination Mass was in Latin, with the rite of ordination in Italian (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYQhgAdxFl4), and when he took possession of his titular Church of Sant’Onofrio in Rome on May 1, 2024, he offered the Mass ad orientem [facing East].2Sant’Onofrio is governed by the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, who have the headquarters of the General Procuratorate there. In addition, the church is also the mother church of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem. The cardinal is extremely proud of the standard of liturgical celebration in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher, with its solemn celebrations of the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours, alongside the liturgies which accompany the Solemn Entry of the Patriarch on great feasts. He himself is a dignified celebrant attentive to the rubrics and the particular chants of the Basilica’s distinctive liturgical rites.
The Vetus Ordo
The cardinal has not spoken publicly about the vetus ordo or Traditionis Custodes, but in Jerusalem there is a Sunday Mass in the old rite celebrated in the chapel of the Austrian Pilgrim Hospice. Jesuit Father David Neuhaus, a convert from Judaism and former patriarchal vicar for Hebrew-speaking Catholics in the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, has spoken of the cardinal’s stance on the ancient Roman liturgy. “The cardinal is very meticulous in liturgical celebration and has no problem with the traditional Mass,” he has said, adding that he “carefully adheres to the instructions from the Holy See.”
Even so, Father Neuhaus believes the issue is “rather moot” as the cardinal is immersed in “the great diversity of rites within the Catholic Church (Latin, Byzantine, Maronite, Syrian, Armenian).” But when demand for the traditional Mass arises, usually from foreigners, Father Neuhaus said the cardinal “has a handful of priests (one diocesan and a few religious) who can celebrate the traditional Mass when the need arises.”
“Our Christian East has always been distinguished by the beauty of liturgical forms and icons, which are an expression of the beauty of Christ and the Holy Trinity, of the Church, of Communion and of the Faith that unites us,” Pizzaballa said in his address at the 2023 symposium Rooted in Hope, marking the tenth anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in Medio Oriente. “Rooted in tradition and each in his or her own liturgical identity, it is necessary to find and propose a new aesthetic, a Christianity that is truly attractive to the world around us, a world in which churches are of less and less interest, except for tourism or to take a few selfies to send to friends.”
Influence of the Orthodox
Asked in a 2020 interview what he has learned from the Orthodox tradition in particular, Cardinal Pizzaballa said: “I have learned a lot. First and foremost, a sense of the sacred which we Catholics have lost somewhat. Our liturgies are very ‘social’, if I may use the term. Not always, certainly, but instead in the Orthodox world, the sense of the sacred is very strong, the spiritual life, fasting. In the Holy Land, if we meet one another during a period of fasting, watch out if they see you eating. We diet but don’t fast. These aspects are very strong, and they are a powerful sign of their identity.”
Fasting, together with Eucharistic Adoration and the Rosary, was also a key element of the Patriarch’s call to prayer for October 17, 2023, issued ten days after the Israel-Hamas war began.
Priestly Vocations
Asked in a 2023 interview what needs to be done to ensure that the seeds of vocation spring up in young hearts, Cardinal Pizzaballa said: “Vocations need a context … and the first a context of faith begins in the family.” Vocations, he added, are also born in “a context that fosters a desire for the absolute.”
“Such a radical vocation, which might seem unreasonable from a human point of view, needs strong ideals that aren’t arrived at through reason and thought, but by encountering people who transmit to you the desire for the absolute,” he said.
He noted how important it is for children to meet people who inspire this desire for the absolute. “Children aren’t capable of great theological and spiritual abstraction. Children follow examples … This was true in my case,” said Pizzaballa, who has often talked about the impact his parish priest had on his own vocation.
Priestly Prayer and Identity
In a homily during priestly ordinations in Jerusalem in June 2024, Cardinal Pizzaballa said that amid the present “dictatorship of sentiment,” priests are called to live as “Christ’s image” by “taking on His very sentiments (cf. Phil 2:5), knowing him, and becoming familiar with him.”
“An interesting priest expresses in his life, in his words, in his prayer, in his lifestyle, familiarity with the person of Jesus,” he said. “On the other hand, a priest is not interesting when he is occupied with everything, has his heart immersed in everything, but does not let that familiarity shine through. He is not useful when his identity as a priest of God is mixed up with the dynamics of the world.”
The cardinal urged the newly ordained in their prayer life they must “always cultivate this friendship, attend to His word, let Him lead you, trusting completely in Him who gave His life for you. It is a gift that must be continually cultivated. Like all friendships, it needs to be attended to. You cannot remain friends with people you do not frequently visit. One is not a friend of Jesus if one does not constantly associate with Him. One is not a solid priest if one builds one’s life on oneself alone, instead of relying on the Church.”
Regarding priestly formation, Cardinal Pizzaballa has said that “we can’t think about forming priests like they were twenty or thirty years ago.” Priests, he said, “need to be formed also to know how to interpret the concrete reality. They need to study languages, they need human formation — human formation is fundamental; before being a priest you are a man who needs to be mature, who needs to be able to speak to your people, love them, handle conflicts properly and so on, know how to live in solitude.”
The Real Presence
On the Solemnity of Corpus Christi in 2024, Cardinal Pizzaballa recalled Urban IV’s 1264 bull, Transiturus, established the Feast of Corpus Christi, to remind the faithful that “the Church is founded on the Eucharist.” Drawing a parallel between that era and our own, he noted that just as “the Real Presence and the very meaning of the Eucharist was questioned,” then so still today this is “a recurring temptation.”
“Today, too, we are perhaps tempted to reduce the Eucharist only to a convivial moment, to a community encounter. It is, yes, an encounter of the community, but of a community that gathers and finds unity around the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection,” he said, insisting that “there is no community without the Eucharist. More: the Eucharist forms the community.”
Holy Mass during the Covid Crisis
In a March 2020 interview on restrictions imposed during the Covid-crisis, Pizzaballa first emphasized that “the Eucharistic celebration and Communion are the highest form of prayer for us Christians, and the most powerful way to be united to Jesus. … We cannot live without the Eucharist.” While deeming it “wise to remain prudent” amid the Covid crisis, given the influx of pilgrims to Jerusalem from all over the world, Pizzaballa distanced himself from those who believed receiving Holy Communion magically makes one immune from contracting Covid-19, saying “the Holy Body and Blood of Christ makes us stronger in faith and life, but it does not make us immune from our humanity, including illnesses.”
He described the restrictions he initially issued as “very limited.” They included a request that Communion be received in the hand and that funerals in cemeteries be held with as few people as possible, the suggestion that Masses be celebrated with a maximum of 15 people, and encouragement to priests to find ways and forms to allow the faithful to receive the Holy Eucharist.
Later that same month, Pizzaballa said subsequent Covid-restrictions were “a shock, since not even in wartime has there ever been a suspension of Masses.” He noted that some Catholics would not accept the prohibition against public Masses. In one Palestinian village, he said, “the people compelled the parish priest to ‘fulfill his duties’ and celebrate Mass with ‘strong and convincing manners’.”
Reception of Holy Communion
Asked during the Covid-crisis how Catholics in his diocese normally receive Communion and whether it should be received on the hand or on the tongue, Pizzaballa noted: “There is not a common instruction in the Catholic Church” and that any ecclesiastical region decides “according to their culture and tradition.”
“In our Church,” he said, “the tradition is to receive the Communion on the tongue. As soon as this [Covid] situation ends, we will surely continue with this tradition. There is no reason to change it.”
Marian Devotion
Marian devotion is central to the cardinal’s spiritual life and exercise of his sanctifying office.
Before his episcopal ordination in 2016, Father Pizzaballa spent a few days on retreat in Caravaggio, at a Marian shrine particularly dear to the people of Lombardy and a place special to his childhood. It is also among the places of his childhood.3Carminati, “Let the Peace of Jerusalem Rise.”
On October 29, 2023, the feast of Mary Queen of Palestine, at the shrine of Deir Rafat, the Latin Patriarch re-consecrated the Holy Land to the Immaculate Heart of Mary with these words:
“To your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, our Church, the whole of humanity, the peoples of the Middle East and, above all, the people of the Holy Land, which belongs to you, since you have beautified it with your birth, with your virtues and with your sorrows, and from there you gave the world the Redeemer. Grant that war may end and that peace may spread to our towns and villages.”
On August 15, 2024, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven, the cardinal issued another appeal for prayer to end the war in Gaza, asking the faithful to invoke her intercession. He said:
“On this day, before or after the celebration of the Eucharist or at another suitable time, I invite everyone to a moment of intercession for peace to the Blessed Virgin Mary. I hope that the parishes, the contemplative and apostolic religious communities and even the few pilgrims who are among us will unite in the common desire for peace that we entrust to the Blessed Virgin. After having spent so many words and after having done what we can to help and be close to everyone, especially those who are most affected, all that remains is for us to pray.”
The cardinal published a “Supplication for peace to Our Lady assumed into Heaven”, which reads, in part: O most glorious Mother of God, raised above the choirs of angels, pray for us with Saint Michael the Archangel and with all the angelic powers of heaven and with all the saints, to your most holy and beloved Son, our Lord and master.”
Consecrated and Religious Life
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem is enriched by the presence of many religious orders and congregations who serve in various capacities.
As of 2022, there were 1,615 religious men and women serving in the Jerusalem diocese. This breaks down as follows: 391 religious priests, 636 male religious, and 979 female religious.
Some of the major congregations present include the Franciscans, Salesians, Benedictines, Dominicans, Carmelites, Sisters of the Rosary, and many others. With 30 male religious and 73 female orders and congregations, they carry out missions in areas such as education, healthcare, social services, and maintaining holy sites.
Cardinal Pizzaballa said that one of the greatest graces he received after being appointed apostolic administrator of the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem was “meeting with the religious communities.”
He plays a significant role in fostering consecrated and religious life, providing spiritual guidance and fostering a sense of mission for communities, as well as other forms of consecrated life such as the Order of Virgins. The cardinal has also shown himself unafraid in openly addressing challenges and problems facing both men’s and women’s religious communities.
During his visit to Gaza in May 2024, the cardinal emphasized the “crucial role played by the priests and sisters in the community” in helping Christians in Gaza.
Importance of Forming the Laity
Cardinal Pizzaballa is also a proponent of adult faith formation and of the laity taking an increasing role in Catholic life according to their proper state.
Speaking to religious in his diocese, he noted the many centers of learning in Jerusalem but said: “We teach the bible to everyone but our own people. We need to work on this.”
Under the cardinal’s leadership, scripture studies were begun at parishes (that were well attended) and a center for formation in scripture, morals and Catholic social teaching was opened, and they had to close registration because there were too many people signed up. “It’s not true that people don’t want to be formed. We just need the instruments.”
“I believe that adult faith formation is central,” Cardinal Pizzaballa told religious of the diocese. “We need new Christian leadership, and it comes through formation.”
The Cardinal also noted the importance of forming Catholics to become more involved in political life, as a form of charity for the common good of society.
Sanctification Amid Conflict and War
A key element of Cardinal Pizzaballa’s exercise of his sanctifying office has been to guide the Catholic faithful, particularly in Gaza, along the way of sanctification amid great suffering.
Asked in 2020 what impression he had of Gaza when he visited as apostolic administrator, he said it’s a “shameful situation: millions of people who live, practically, without anything. They have extremely high unemployment, very few can leave, they don’t have public structures, without basic things like clean water, hospitals, there’s absolutely nothing and they are without prospects. It’s truly difficult to keeps one’s peace and not become angered when you go there.”
Asked how he is helping the Christian community in Gaza to handle a situation he described as “shameful”,4He said in the interview: “Millions of people live practically without anything. They have extremely high unemployment, very few can leave, they don’t have public structures, they are without basic things like clean water, hospitals, there’s absolutely nothing and they are without prospects. It’s truly difficult to keeps one’s peace and not become angered when you go there.” he said: “On the one hand, one has to pray.” But he said it is also his duty to “help the Christian community to ask themselves how to live in this situation, which will not end any time soon. It’s a mistake to say: ‘we need to wait until it’s over’ …. We need to live in it in the most positive manner possible: positive in the sense of having courage and vision, asking ourselves, ‘what is the relationship between justice and forgiveness, and peace?’ In the West, this seems very abstract but there it’s real. … We need to ask ourselves this not to find an answer but in order to remain within a wound with a Christian perspective.”
“I can, I have the duty, to help the community to live in this in this perspective.”
On October 7, 2024, the first anniversary of the Hamas-led attack in Israel, Cardinal Pizzaballa led an Hour of Prayer for Peace at the Pro-Cathedral of the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem, in response to Pope Francis’ call to observed a day of prayer, fasting, and repentance for global peace, with a special focus on the Holy Land.
The Hour or Prayer commenced with the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, followed by the recitation of the Holy Rosary, in honor of the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. The service continued with Vespers and concluded with a Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.5Addressing those gathered in the Cathedral, Cardinal Pizzaballa said: “In this time when violence seems to be the only language, we will continue to speak of and believe in forgiveness and reconciliation,” said H.B. Card. Pizzaballa. “In this time that is full of pain, we want to and will continue to use words of consolation and give concrete and relentless comfort where the pain grows. Even if we have to start anew every day, even if we may be seen as irrelevant and useless, we will continue to be faithful to the love that has won us and be new people in Christ, here in Jerusalem, in the Holy Land, and wherever we are.” Various parishes of the Latin Patriarchate across the Holy Land and Jordan united in similar holy hours. Reflections were focused on the words of St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians: “If [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy” (1 Corinthians 12:26).
GOVERNING OFFICE
As the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pizzaballa is responsible for governing the Church in a region spanning Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Cyprus.
He is regarded as having clear ideas about the Church and theology, “an acute sense of reality,” and the discernment and decisiveness of a farmer from Lombardy, the region where he grew up.6François Vayne, director of communications for the Grand Magisterium of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, told the National Catholic Register in March 2024 that Pizzaballa is a Churchman “of great stature, with very clear ecclesiological and missiological ideas. There is no confusion in his theological thinking, which is authentically Catholic, harmoniously combining fidelity and openness,” said Vayne who has known Patriarch Pizzaballa well for 10 years. “Quick, efficient and direct, he exercises his natural authority in respectful dialogue with his advisers. His acute sense of reality,” he added, “is an asset in pastoral government, which he handles with discernment and decisiveness, like a Lombard farmer.” A survey of the cardinal’s public addresses and meetings suggests that he is a realist who, while not wishing to impose his own will, takes a no-nonsense approach and is not afraid to talk about and tackle issues head on.
Solving a Financial and Administrative Crisis
A month after stepping down as custos in 2016, Pizzaballa was appointed by Pope Francis as bishop and apostolic administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem to resolve the patriarchate’s dire financial situation, which was mainly due to mismanagement of the American University of Madaba
In a March 2017 letter to the diocese, he described the process he implemented to assess the situation in the patriarchate, and informed the faithful that he had convened a meeting with all clergy to focus on the “life of the Latin Patriarchate with special attention to the priests, their life and their pastoral activity; the financial problems and their possible solution; and the preparation of internal bylaws for our administration.”
At a 2017 Christmas press conference, Pizzaballa announced that the Deloitte consulting firm was assisting in the “restructuring and administrative reorganization” of the Patriarchate.
By 2020 he had effectively resolved by setting up an economic advisory board made up of financial experts, and launching a successful appeal through the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher, of which he is grand prior.
In September 2020 he also issued new bylaws that brought the administration of various institutions under the Latin Patriarchate in line with canon law and the latest regulations of the Holy See. In his introductory letter, Pizzaballa explained that the document contained clear and unambiguous provisions on the spiritual, pastoral and economic dimensions of the Patriarchate.
A month later, and just four days after Pope Francis named him Patriarch, Pizzaballa published an open letter thanking the Knights and Dames of the Holy Sepulcher for “their solidarity and closeness by encouraging and also concretely supporting the processes of revision and control of the administrative life of the diocese,” which he said, “had become urgent and necessary.”
He announced that “the large debt which the Patriarchate owed to the Saint John the Baptist foundation, linked to the University of Madaba, has been fully repaid” and that it had “reduced the overall debts that burdened the Patriarchate administration by almost 60%.”
Acknowledging that this was possible “thanks to the painful relinquishing of some property, which however, was not essential for the Patriarchate,” he said a “structured plan” had been put in place to conclude soon the “remaining commitments.”
“Much remains to be done,” the new Patriarch said, “but we are now at the end of a positive path for the life of the diocese of Jerusalem.”
Reforming Pastoral Care
As part of his pastoral reform plan for the Patriarchate, Pizzaballa announced in 2017 the establishment of a pastoral office aiming at helping “bishops and priests to guide pastoral choices in the diocese and above all to identify themes and give recommendations to better accompany our people.”
He said the decision was made to “focus on the theme of the family: marriage preparation, accompaniment of young couples, education in parenting, formation, etc.” He also visited the parishes and religious communities of the diocese, beginning with the parish in Gaza.
Marriage preparation has been a priority for the Patriarch, particularly for Catholic-Orthodox mixed marriages, which comprise 90 percent of couples. In a 2023 letter, Pizzaballa issued pastoral advice to couples preparing for matrimony and the wider Christian community. “Marriage,” he said, “has a great value for the whole Christian community, and is considered a project of God, which leads to holiness.” He invited parents to prepare their sons and daughter for the sacrament by offering them “the necessary support and words of advice to prepare them for this new chapter of partnership.” He also urged priests to remain vigilant and faithful in overseeing the marriage preparations and accompany the couples step-by-step until they exchange their wedding vows before the Lord.”
Pizzaballa also exhorted the faithful to ensure that “celebrations be done with reason,” saying: “It is imperative to dress appropriately and decently, especially during the wedding ceremony. Do not get distracted by focusing too much on the outer appearance, forgetting to celebrate the sacrament of marriage: getting married in the Lord and before the Church. Instead, focus on praying for them, their marriage and future family.”
On March 3, 2024, Cardinal Pizzaballa inaugurated a family and youth pastoral center for Christian families in Palestine, with another branch in Ramallah. Commenting on the Gospel reading, Card. Pizzaballa said: “Despite the importance of money in our life and the life of the Church as well, it should not be our priority. Rather, our priority is to serve Jesus, who saved us by dying on the cross for free. And the question that must arise in today’s reading is: Who is the focus of our lives? Jesus or money? And how can we connect these two dimensions healthily and soundly, without losing Jesus as the primary focus of our Christian life.”
Cardinal Pizzaballa has emphasized the need to fight addiction which he identifies a “new form of poverty”. Speaking to men and women religious of the diocese in 2023, he said he’s found addiction to drugs, alcohol, pornography, the various addictions everywhere, both in families and in schools. “There’s a lot of work to do on this,” he said.
Vicariate for Migrants
In April 2018, Pizzaballa established a Vicariate for Migrants and Asylum Seekers (VMAS) under the responsibility of a Patriarchal Vicar who works in communion with and in agreement with the Patriarch. He also erected the “Holy Family” personal parish destined to care for the migrants and asylum seekers in all pastoral, sacramental, and formative aspects, having all the faculties that universal law grants to parishes.
The Crisis of Catholic Institutions
In a meeting with the religious of his diocese in 2023, Cardinal Pizzaballa lamented that nearly all the Catholic institutions – schools, hospitals, etc. — in the diocese are in crisis. He said the first and most evident crisis is financial as religious communities struggle to keep them open. The other aspect, he said, is that “in nearly all these institutions there are only one or two or three male or female religious who work there [and] are so absorbed by the work that you don’t know if they are a religious or not.”
The Patriarch called it “shameful” that there are directors of schools who hire religious education teachers that don’t go to church. “How can someone who doesn’t go to church teach catechism to children?” he asked. “What credibility can they possibly have?”
He also noted the lack of formation of personnel, including doctors who work in local hospitals that he said “know nothing about Catholic morals and ethics, what abortion means, what eugenics means, etc.” A proponent of a strong Catholic laity, he said: “We have hospitals, but we’ve never worried about creating formation for personnel who work in our hospitals.”
Pastoral Care amid Conflict
Asked in a February 2024 interview what it means to provide pastoral care in the context of the current conflict, Cardinal Pizzaballa said the region has always been beset by political and religious conflict and the faithful are often looking for answers. But he said this is not the most useful approach because “often there are no clear answers” to decades and even centuries-long conflicts. “We need to look to the presence of Christ which is a presence that enlightens us in these situations of conflict. I always say that there are problems you can solve and there are problems that you need to live with, and in Jerusalem one learns this very well. One needs to live with these problems — but not alone. The presence of the Risen One among us is the presence that must enlighten how we look upon these situations.”
Asked how a pastor can be a bearer of justice and peace in such a complicated situation, the cardinal said: “A pastor doesn’t solve all the problems by himself but needs to work together with everyone. He needs to build relationships, open horizons, use language that opens minds and hearts to understand the complexity of the problems and give hope. And he needs to do everything possible to build pathways both in the religious, political and also social spheres, knowing that no one can solve the problems on one’s own. Especially in the Holy Land it’s very clear, as Pope Francis says, that “no one is saved alone. Therefore, a pastor has to create opportunities of encounter and understanding.”
He added that the Christian community in the Holy Land, “being small and having no political power” can be an advantage. “Not being powerful, we’re also not a threat,” he said. “This makes a little freer than other communities.”
He also said that relations between the Christian Churches have “much improved in recent years,” through collaborative work to restore the holy sites and education efforts in schools. “We need to increase this,” he said.
Handling Clerical Sex-Abuse
In February 2019, Pizzaballa attended the Child Protection Summit in Rome, in his capacity as Vice President of the Conference of Latin Bishops of the Arab Regions. Interviewed by the German broadcaster Domradio, he said he believed “expectations” were “too high” for the event, and that “such a meeting cannot end with a concrete and specific results.” Asked about his own expectations, he said: “I expect clear ideas on how to proceed to deal with the issue. Then, the Bishops’ Conferences in their region have to adopt their own laws according to the specific situation.”
He also noted that the problems and dynamics in Western countries differ from those in the Middle East, Africa or Asia. “In the Middle East,” he said, “we do not really have this specific issue of child abuse in our churches. In such cases, the penal law allows for the death penalty, whereas the tribal law can be even harsher.”
In his twelve years as Custos and two years as a bishop, Pizzaballa said he “never encountered a case of child abuse” in the Holy Land. He noted, however, that “we may not have this specific problem, but there are lots of schools and institutions, where we have to take action to prevent such cases in the future. The fact that we have not heard anything, does not mean that they do not exist in our country. I am sure that they exist, and we have to be prepared for that and react appropriately,” he said.
Clericalism
Echoing Pope Francis’ criticism of “clericalism,” Cardinal Pizzaballa has taken up the theme on various occasions, lamenting its presence particularly in the Middle East.
Preaching on New Year’s Day at the Latin Patriarchate Co-Cathedral in Jerusalem in 2021, Pizzaballa said “it is no secret that there is a certain distance between the clergy and the laity, and this is certainly not unique in our Church. It is a common theme for many churches in the world.”
“The collaboration between priests and laity is often misunderstood and ends up becoming: ‘simply do what the priest wants’,” he said.
The Patriarch highlighted the need for more lay participation, saying: “It is difficult to find formed, committed lay people willing to make a positive contribution to the community. It is a real barrier that needs to be taken into consideration,” he said, “especially thinking of the future generation, which wants to be leaders in the life of the Church, and not just executors of orders and directives.”
The cardinal, however, is equally ready to address problems facing women’s religious communities.
Peace Efforts
Pizzaballa had been cardinal for just a week when Hamas launched its devastating attacks in southern Israel last October 7, plunging the region — and the Italian-born Latin patriarch of Jerusalem — into a new phase of a conflict he knows only too well.
Having planned to stay in Rome for the duration of the Synod on Synodality assembly in October 2023, the Franciscan patriarch was forced to abruptly return to the Holy Land to tend to his flock caught once again in the crossfire of an Israeli-Palestinian conflagration.
Holed up in the patriarchate as the hostilities escalated, Cardinal Pizzaballa said the confinement gave him time to reflect on what it meant to be a cardinal there and that the cardinalate’s red color, signifying the cardinals’ willingness to shed blood, had taken on “a profound significance marked by much sorrow, by many hardships.”
A fortnight after returning, he composed a carefully worded and finely balanced diocesan letter strongly condemning both the Hamas atrocities and the extent of Israeli retaliation and exhorting the people of the region to turn to Christ and the “courage of love and peace” of the Gospel.
Shortly after the conflict erupted, asked by a journalist if he would be willing to exchange himself for Israeli child hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, he said he would, creating headlines around the world.
Unafraid to speak out in the face of the violence and injustice that has so blighted the region, he has striven to treat both sides with equanimity, but with arguably more sympathy for the Palestinian people, whom he sees as “still waiting for their rights, their dignity or recognition.” Among them, of course, are Palestinian Christians, and he considers Christians as a whole in the Holy Land to be, like Palestinian Muslims, outsiders. The heart of the Church “spiritually and theologically” is Jerusalem, he has said, “because everything was born here. At the same time, we are also kind of peripheral.”
His perspective has occasionally provoked reactions from Israelis who criticized him for signing a statement condemning Israel’s attacks on civilians and calling for a de-escalation of the Hamas-Israel conflict. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also refuted the patriarch’s claim that an IDF sniper had killed a mother and daughter in a Catholic parish in Gaza, insisting that the IDF “does not target civilians, no matter their religion,” and that a review of their operational findings supported their claim.
And yet, while some Israelis might have their suspicions, he is well regarded by the nation’s president, Isaac Herzog, who has known Cardinal Pizzaballa for more than two decades. They first met when the two worked together to coordinate Pope St. John Paul II’s 2000 pilgrimage to Jerusalem — Herzog was cabinet secretary at the time, and then-Father Pizzaballa was vicar general of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem for the pastoral care of Hebrew-speaking Catholics in Israel.
Herzog has praised Cardinal Pizzaballa as “a brilliant person,” a leader “knowledgeable and extremely well acquainted with the complexities of our region,” who “enjoys the trust of all the concerned parties in Jordan, the Palestinian Territories and Israel.” They “respect him tremendously,” Herzog said. “His name precedes him.”
Pizzaballa is held in high esteem in Tel Aviv, despite now being one of the most influential voices to lament the situation of civilians in Gaza and call for a ceasefire.
In a July 2024 interview with Aid to the Church in Need, the cardinal said a false neutrality is not the solution, but it is also important not to let the Church get sucked into the conflict. “I keep being told I need to be neutral. Come with me to Gaza, speak to my people who lost everything, and then tell me I have to be neutral. It doesn’t work. But we cannot become part of the political, or military clash or the confrontation. We have to be a constructive presence, but it is not simple to find the right way,” he said.
Cardinal Pizzaballa’s governing style has been influenced not only by his Lombard upbringing but also by the decades he has spent in Holy Land. He said in a 2023 interview that living in Jerusalem teaches you several lessons: first, “that no one is the master of time” and that sometimes “we need to learn to wait”; second, that “no one is an island” and that “we must not presume to impose our vision on others but learn to live with diversity”; and third, that “there are problems that have solutions and there are problems that don’t have solutions and you need to learn to live with them.”
TEACHING OFFICE
The Reality of Christ
Central to Cardinal Pizzaballa’s exercise of his teaching office is his faith in the reality of the Person of Jesus Christ.
“There is nothing more real than the encounter with Christ,” Cardinal Pizzaballa said in the 2024 inaugural sit-down interview at the annual Rimini Meeting hosted by Communion and Liberation. “Every Christian vocation is centered on the person of Jesus Christ. And everything revolves around that experience that builds you up and is foundational.”
The Patriarch said the danger “is always to think of Jesus as an abstract reality” but he insisted that “there is nothing more real than the encounter with Christ.”
Noting that the religious habit is a visible sign of this reality, the cardinal said that as a Franciscan today, this means “continually asking myself what Jesus is saying to me at this moment. … and then looking for a way, on a personal level, to transmit this experience to the community, to my church community.”
“Every evaluation, every decision, every choice, every word to be said must be compatible with that experience, with that relationship, with that friendship,” he added.
For Cardinal Pizzaballa, “experience” is not to be confused with mere feeling or sentiment. “In the time of the dictatorship of sentiment, where authenticity is increasingly in danger of rhyming with subjectivity and truth with what thrills, faith cannot be reduced to an intimate sensation or human or political action but must return to being a confident choice that orients and changes lives and is therefore also convincing,” he said in his homily for priestly ordinations in 2024.
Christian Identity vs. Pleasing the World
In a homily delivered in Santa Maria Maggiore, Pizzaballa said Christian identity is “not a stronghold to be defended but home where all are welcome, that with Christ we are for everyone.” Asked in 2023 interview with ReteBiella TV if there is a danger that this “with Christ” will vanish from trying to please the world, the cardinal said: “There always has been and there always will be [this danger]. This is the temptation to avoid problems or avoid misunderstandings with the non-religious or secular world. However, we don’t need to be afraid. There will always be people who won’t understand or succeed in understanding that ‘for Christ’ doesn’t exclude but includes.”
Asked if he was referring to Pope Francis’s famous “todos, todos, todos” at World Youth Day, Cardinal Pizzaballa firmly replied: “Certainly, the Church is for everyone. This doesn’t mean that it belongs to everyone.”
Fratelli Tutti and Interreligious Dialogue
Cardinal Pizzaballa has shown support for Pope Francis in many areas, especially regarding interreligious dialogue. The patriarch has been supportive of the Pope’s 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti (Brothers All), and his controversial “Human Fraternity” document signed in 2019 by Pope Francis and the grand imam of Al-Azhar University. Such gestures have had an “enormous impact” on Arab public consciousness even if, Patriarch Pizzaballa said with characteristic frankness, no one in the Arab world reads such documents.
Asked in 2023 how one engages in sincere interreligious dialogue that goes beyond saying “we’re all the same” and doesn’t deny that the Church of Christ is the true Church, Pizzaballa said: “First, we’re not all same. It’s not true that we’re all the same and that the religions are all equal. It’s very true in Jerusalem and it’s something that, in Jerusalem, no one wants to hear.”
The Patriarch continued: “We need to be real. We need to be honest with ourselves, and this will be recognized. Having different perspectives, different stories, different visions, doesn’t mean that we can’t love one another — and live together. Naturally, such co-existence will always be complex because there will be people who accept to be in a relationship with you, others not, but this is part of life.”
However, Cardinal Pizzaballa believes that the Israeli-Palestian war has, in short order, “swept away years of interreligious dialogue, of laborious construction, and of relationships between the different religious communities.”
Speaking at Sacro Cuore Catholic University in Rome in January 2024, he said: “This war is a watershed in interreligious dialogue, which can never be the same as before, at least between Christians, Muslims, and Jews.
He continued:
“The Jewish world did not feel on the side of the Christians and expressed it very clearly. The Christians in turn, divided as always on everything, are incapable of a common word and are divided on supporting either one side or the other, or are uncertain. The Muslims feel attacked and believed to be conniving with the excesses committed on October 7.
In short, after years of interreligious dialogue we find that we don’t understand each other. For me personally, it is a great sorrow but also a great lesson. Starting from this experience we will have to begin again … aware that religions still have a central role in orienting, and that the dialogue between must take an important step and start from the current misunderstandings of our differences and our wounds.”
“It can no longer be a dialogue only apparent to Western culture as it has been until now,” he said. “Interreligious dialogue was in Europe and in the United States. We never talked between Christians, Jews and Muslims about the issue of our life in the Holy Land; we never talked about that and it’s clear that today we want to talk about interreligious dialogue, we cannot but begin from there. Otherwise, we will talk and talk without concluding anything.”
A De-Christianized Middle East
Still, the Cardinal has lamented what he calls the “de-Christianization of the Middle East” and identified several root causes. Speaking to a gathering of religious of his diocese, he said the first element is emigration, with “some churches, particularly in Iraq and Syria” having lost two thirds of their faithful.
“Number aren’t everything,” he said, “but we need to know them.” The second element, he said, is a “growing disaffection with the Church” that expresses itself in a lack of participation in the sacraments and criticism leveled at the Church. The third element, he said, is “very weak” Christian formation. “Traditional religious formation has fallen on hard times, he said. “We are not forming adequately our community in the faith. If you ask young people how many sacraments there are, they don’t know. If you ask them the difference between Genesis and Mark, they don’t know.” Finally, the Latin Patriarch pointed to declining numbers of marriages and birthrates as contributing to the de-Christianization of the Middle East.
Unity with the Orthodox
The Latin Patriarch has demonstrated a strong commitment to fostering unity with the Orthodox Church, particularly in the context of the challenging situation in Gaza.
During his recent visit to Gaza in May 2024, Cardinal Pizzaballa made a deliberate effort to show solidarity with the Orthodox community, visiting St. Porphyrius Orthodox Church and their monastery, to meet all its residents, together with their parish priest and their bishop, who he said were “very welcoming.”
While acknowledging that complexity of Catholic-Orthodox relations, the cardinal has often stressed that “in Jerusalem, no one is an island” and that “especially for us Christians, the first mission is to seek unity which doesn’t mean uniformity, which doesn’t mean being one thing, since history has made us different from one another, but first and foremost it means loving one another and working together in every way possible.”
Laudato Si’
The Latin Patriarch was also supportive of the Pope’s environmental encyclical Laudato Si (Care for Our Common Home), telling a conference in 2015 that scientific research into a fair distribution of common goods such as water and energy “cannot be divorced from” the message of the encyclical, “which points to the socialization of these fundamental goods.” Access to energy and especially water is often regarded as central to understanding the conflict in the Holy Land.
Recognizing Confusion in the Church
In his homily on becoming a cardinal, Patriarch Pizzaballa expressed his respect for the office of Peter while at the same time frankly recognizing current problems. He noted how Peter was able to “discover love within [his own] failure” and urged the faithful, together with Peter, to “look anew to Christ.” In these “times of great disorientation and confusion,” he said, “the Church is called to start again from Christ, Master and Lord.”
Church observers have described the cardinal as “modern,” and he has a decidedly fashionable view of the cardinalate similar to that of Pope Francis, remarking that “cardinals in our time are no longer the princes of the Church, but its servants and those of the people of God.”
Women’s Ordination
But he also appears to be willing to uphold tradition, as seen not only by his stance towards the liturgy but also his position on women’s ordination.
Asked by ReteBiella TV about the attention aroused by the “ordination” of the first Lutheran pastor in Jerusalem and how he would explain the difference between social equality and women’s access to sacramental ordination, and why the Church cannot open to the latter, Cardinal Pizzaballa said: “I believe that we need to begin with faith. If the point of departure is social, about rights, and duties, it’s a point of departure that doesn’t allow you to have a true and integral vision of the reality of the Church. Therefore, begin with faith, history, tradition which are clear and constant references.”
He also noted the importance, especially in Jerusalem, of keeping in mind “the relationship with the Orthodox, which for us is important and constitutive of our life.”
“We need to keep in mind their sensibilities,” he said. “Therefore, our choices need to be consistent with a desire to remain united with them and not to create further rifts, misunderstandings, and so on. But above all, the Church’s choices are choices that need to derive from the relationship with Christ and the tradition which is represented in the Scripture and in the life of the Church.”
The Synodal Dubia
Asked about the dubia sent to Pope Francis by several cardinals in 2023 regarding the Synod on Synodality, the Latin Patriarch was more evasive: “There’s a lot of talk in the Church,” he said. “There will be tensions and understandings, attempts to impose one thing or another, or even fears of losing one thing or another. They are part and parcel of the life of the Church, which is such a complex reality, but one should not be afraid because neither you nor I make the Church: you and I make it up, but Christ is the One who leads it. Therefore, we don’t need to be afraid.”
Ethics and Bioethics
No specific interventions by Cardinal Pizzaballa on certain ethical and bioethical issues are documented. However, he did raise the issue at a meeting with religious of the Patriarchate in 2023. Commenting on the “crisis of Catholic institutions” (schools, hospitals, etc.), in which “lay people who are not always work (he emphasized these words in gestures).” As a consequence, he said, “we have so many hospitals that are not able to network with each other, in which our doctors do not know a word, do not know anything about Catholic ethics and morality, what ‘abortion’ what ‘eugenics’ mean, and so on.” The Patriarch then denounced that “in our hospitals they practice, not therapeutic abortion, but pharmaceutical abortion in an indirect manner (…), not because they want to do it, but because they don’t know.”
Synod on Synodality
At the start of the Synod on Synodality process in 2021, Pizzaballa invited the parish priests of the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem to become “leading actors” in the synodal process, to ensure that all local ecclesial communities were fully involved. Opening ceremonies took place in Galilee, Palestine, Jordan and Cyprus.
In a pastoral letter issued ahead of the event, the Latin Patriarch said the Synod’s theme clearly expresses Pope Francis’s “intention to ensure that the life of the Church is less and less focused only on the clergy and is increasingly the fruit of a general involvement of all its members.”
Pizzaballa concluded his pastoral letter, warning that people should not expect “dramatic changes” or “extraordinary fruits” from the synodal journey. The Synod would be profitable, he said, if it “marked the beginning of a new way of finding ourselves as a community, where all feel part of each other’s life, united in the person of Jesus, the heart of our faith.”
By 2023, Cardinal Pizzaballa seemed to take a somewhat dimmer view of the Synod. Interviewed by ReteBiella just days after he was created a cardinal, he was asked how he would explain to people in the pews what a synod is. He replied: “The Synod is many things, but it has changed a lot (…) especially this last Synod, which is on synodality, so it seems like a tautology.”
He described a synod as “one of the ways for the Church to open debates on issues that are common, listening to different realities, because the Church is increasingly plural: it speaks different languages, it has different colors, it comes from different cultures, so the same issues are experienced very differently, perceived very differently.” It is “a way to discuss essential themes of the life of the Church to find, as far as possible—if you can, because you may not be able to—criteria that are common to everyone.”
Asked if a synod is always consultative, the cardinal responded: “To my knowledge, it is…”.
Catechesis
Cardinal Pizzaballa has often expressed a seemingly sharp judgement: “I have always said, sometimes scandalously, ‘the Catechism has never converted anyone.’ If there is no experience of an encounter with the faith, the Catechism is of no use. The Catechism puts the experience of faith in order, but it cannot replace it, so the first challenge we have is how to communicate the faith. Not doctrine, faith….”
Yet the cardinal’s words need to be seen in the light of other other statements. “It is true that …. the Catechism has never converted anyone, but it is also true that our experience of faith, which is also an experience of encounter with the Lord, also needs to have a form and a shape that helps us to live it in an adequate manner, because faith is not only an emotion, a personal relationship, with the heart: it also needs to be translated into praxis in ordinary life. And the Catechism is that text that helps us to understand, to deepen [our understanding of] the mysteries of our faith, which the Church has handed on to us.”
Speaking within context of the Synod on Synodality, Pizzaballa levelled with men and women religious of the diocese, telling them: “Catechesis as we’re doing it now isn’t worth much, with some exceptions of course. Very often it depends on the catechist—in ninety percent of cases—and we need to work on the formation of catechists, who first and foremost need to be believers, which is not a given.”
“Young people leave school, and they know little about the Christian faith. This is a general problem in the whole Church,” he said, telling religious sisters that implementing new textbooks that teach the dogmas of the faith is something that he would consider “going to war” over.
Formation
The importance of formation for clergy, religious, and laity is central to the Latin Patriarch’s vision for the future of the Church in the Middle East. Marking the tenth anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s Ecclesia in Medio Oriente at a symposium in Cyprus, he laid out his vision of formation, writing: “By formation … I mean not only catechesis, which is certainly necessary and to be rethought and renewed, but also, more generally speaking, the recovery of an authentic Christian identity that is not only social and cultural in nature.”
“In an increasingly secularized world,” he continued, “the contribution that the Churches in the Middle East can make is precisely a rebirth from the heart of faith. We are historically the heart and cradle of the Gospel, and it is from here that the call to the beauty of the Gospel and, why not, to a ‘redemption’ for the entire Universal Church, in the face of the difficult crises and scandals she is going through, can still be born.”
As a first “concrete orientation for the future,” Pizzaballa said that formation “cannot be reduced only to the celebration of the Sacraments and the Divine Liturgy” but most “focus on the kerygma, on catechesis, adapted to our times.”
“It is not only a matter of developing new formation texts, but also new methodologies, new dynamics of religious education, both in schools (where Christian formation is often lacking, to say the least) and in other ecclesial contexts. A catechesis that is centered on the Word of God and the Fathers, but also existential and current, corresponding to our times.”
Highlighting the “identity crisis” the Church is experiencing amid “the new globalized and secularized world,” he said: “We can no longer be satisfied with the Sunday presence of our faithful. It no longer has the strength to counter the tsunami of globalized secularism, which enters, through the Internet of other forms, even int the Bedouin tents or in the most remote villages most faithful to Christian practice.”
“On the one hand,” he said, “our faithful have, when compared to Europe, where Christian identity is much more fragile and in crisis, a strong sense of belonging. On the other hand, we can no longer rest on this fact and just say: ‘Well at least it’s not like Europe!’”.
Denouncing the 2024 Olympic Opening Ceremony
The cardinal has not held back in condemning the darker forms of globalized secularism in the West.
As head of the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land, Cardinal Pizzaballa joined with the Middle East Council of Churches in denouncing the “mockery of the mystery of the mysteries in Christianity” during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
“What happened indicates complete ignorance of the concepts of freedom and human dignity, and this is a very worrying matter for the future of humanity, because exploiting a global platform in this way means a decline in the global human-civilizational convergence to the lowest level in human relations,” the statement read.
It also reasserted the Church’s many human contributions to civilization, saying: “Throughout its history, Christianity has inspired human development in the fields of science, culture, and arts, and it will continue this message until the end of time, and “the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).
The Church and Modern Communications
Asked if he had any advice for sharing the faith via Catholic media, he said: “I’m certain that if you have something interesting to say, it’ll come out. You don’t need to be afraid. You don’t need to follow what’s fashionable or say things, thinking ‘What will the others say?’. You must be very free and authentic and that are interesting, which for us in the Church comes first from the experience of faith that speaks to life, that isn’t separated from life.
“The truth always comes out — in times and forms and in ways that we can’t exactly control. What’s important is to have something interesting to say.”
I see it also in my own experience. When you say something interesting, it reaches even where you thought it wouldn’t. And you don’t need to worry. You sow the seed, and the seed bears fruit in its own way. When you’ve communicated something, what you’ve communicated isn’t yours anymore. It belongs to the one who receives it, and who will do with it what they want.”
Controversial Issues in the Western Church
Still, much remains unknown about the cardinal-patriarch, especially his thinking on contemporary issues, as he is generally wary of being drawn into Church disputes over doctrine, theology and ecclesiastical politics.
While there are no reported stances on other currently controversial issues in the Church (access to Communion for civilly remarried divorcees, blessings to same-sex couples, gender, etc.), one can reasonably speculate about the cardinal’s thinking on the basis of three elements. First: his comment (see above) on the question of women’s priesthood, i.e., that any consideration must begin from faith and tradition, not from demands for equality. Second: the importance he gives to not upsetting or destabilize already complicated relations with the Orthodox world. Third: his conviction that while “the Church is for everyone, this does not mean that it belongs to everyone.”
- 1The magnitude of the position, which he took on at age 39 (much younger than his predecessors) is further evidenced by the fact that the Custody extends over several nations, and the Custos is a de jure member of the assembly of the Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land.
- 2He added: “It is a fact that is part of history and will always remain in our DNA. Moreover, a part of our friars is of Arab origin. It is also true, however, that in these two years — also because of my knowledge of the language — contact with the Israelis has been easier.”
- 3His publications date back to his years as Custos: ‘La presenza francescana in Terra Santa’, Franciscan Printing Press, Jerusalem 2005; ‘Terra Santa’, La Scuola, Brescia 2008; ‘Il potere del cuore. Il Medio Oriente nel racconto del Custode di Terra Santa’, Edizioni Terra Santa, Milan 2016.
- 4Present were then-Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Patriarch Emeritus Fouad Twal and the Bishop of Bergamo, Francesco Beschi.
- 5“I’m Franciscan and a diocesan priest. And instead, they sent me there. In addition, I had a sense not of weakness, but of inadequacy. So, I thought the only thing to do was to trust. If [the Pope] had decided this, I needed to trust in grace. There is always the temptation to think, ‘what do I have to do?’ but you need to let it go. Trust in the grace of God, and everything will follow.”
- 6.Among his predecessors, in fact, Patriarch Filippo Camassei was also elevated to the College of Cardinals, but only in 1919, at the end of his tenure.
- 7Examples include the Mass on Easter Sunday 2019, when he was still Apostolic Administrator (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic9QV-6H-fg), his first Pontifical Mass as Patriarch in 2020 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxzDgLusb5w) or the Midnight Mass on Christmas 2023 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_3ZZFZmlCM). In 2023, the priestly ordination Mass was in Latin, with the rite of ordination in Italian (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYQhgAdxFl4)
- 8Sant’Onofrio is governed by the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, who have the headquarters of the General Procuratorate there. In addition, the church is also the mother church of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem.
- 9Carminati, “Let the Peace of Jerusalem Rise.”
- 10He said in the interview: “Millions of people live practically without anything. They have extremely high unemployment, very few can leave, they don’t have public structures, they are without basic things like clean water, hospitals, there’s absolutely nothing and they are without prospects. It’s truly difficult to keeps one’s peace and not become angered when you go there.”
- 11Addressing those gathered in the Cathedral, Cardinal Pizzaballa said: “In this time when violence seems to be the only language, we will continue to speak of and believe in forgiveness and reconciliation,” said H.B. Card. Pizzaballa. “In this time that is full of pain, we want to and will continue to use words of consolation and give concrete and relentless comfort where the pain grows. Even if we have to start anew every day, even if we may be seen as irrelevant and useless, we will continue to be faithful to the love that has won us and be new people in Christ, here in Jerusalem, in the Holy Land, and wherever we are.”
- 12François Vayne, director of communications for the Grand Magisterium of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, told the National Catholic Register in March 2024 that Pizzaballa is a Churchman “of great stature, with very clear ecclesiological and missiological ideas. There is no confusion in his theological thinking, which is authentically Catholic, harmoniously combining fidelity and openness,” said Vayne who has known Patriarch Pizzaballa well for 10 years. “Quick, efficient and direct, he exercises his natural authority in respectful dialogue with his advisers. His acute sense of reality,” he added, “is an asset in pastoral government, which he handles with discernment and decisiveness, like a Lombard farmer.”
