Pope Leo XIV opened Holy Week with a direct message: his prayer for the Christians suffering in conflict zones. After the Palm Sunday Mass, he prayed the Angelus, remembering those who are unable to fully live the rites of these holy days.
POPE LEO XIV
At the beginning of Holy Week, through our prayer we are closer than ever to Christians in the Middle East who are suffering the consequences of a terrible conflict and, in many cases, are unable to fully live the rites of these holy days.
While the celebration was a great success in Rome, the situation in Jerusalem was very different. Israeli police prevented the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and the Custos of the Holy Land from entering the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Mass on Palm Sunday .
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem issued a statement explaining what had happened:
GFX
“For the first time in centuries, Church leaders were unable to celebrate Palm Sunday Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Preventing the Cardinal and the Custos from entering constitutes a manifestly unreasonable and highly disproportionate measure.”
According to the statement, both were intercepted while traveling “in private and without any sign of procession or ceremonial act” and were forced to turn back.
The Patriarchate and the Custody expressed their “deep sorrow to the Christian faithful of the Holy Land and around the world that prayer was prevented in this way on one of the holiest days of the Christian calendar.”
BAM
Trans. CRT
