Noa

Dear Madam VP of the European Commission, I find your concern about Christians curious. In the nearly 17 years since creating your X account, you have not once tweeted about any church — until today. To make matters even more odd, you have never tweeted about Christians at all. So why the sudden concern over a minor incident involving Christians in a distant country — one with warm relations with the Christian community — an incident already being addressed by local authorities, who have committed to ensuring it won't happen again? What, exactly, are you trying to achieve here?

Cardinal Pizzaballa: “It is true that the police had said that the orders from the internal command prevented any kind of gathering in places where there is no shelter, but we had not asked for anything public, just a brief and small private ceremony to preserve the idea of the celebration in the Holy Sepulchre. There were no clashes; everything was done in a very polite manner. I do not want to force the issue; we want to use this situation to try to clarify better in the coming days what to do, in respect for everyone's safety but also in respect for the right to prayer."

We’ve known for weeks that the holy sites in Jerusalem were going to be closed due to the war but Pizaballa still went with the purpose of causing this outrage. This was a political stunt. Shameful.

I love Israel, and I love Israelis, but the morons in Netanyahu's government sure don't make it fucking easy.

I just called the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, to express my great sorrow over this morning's unfortunate incident in the Old City of Jerusalem, in which Cardinal Pizzaballa and the Custos of the Holy Land, the Most Reverend Fr. Francesco Ielpo, were prevented from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for prayers amid the ongoing security situation. I clarified that the incident stemmed from security concerns due to the continuous threat of missile attacks from the Iranian terror regime against the civilian population in Israel, following previous incidents in which Iranian missiles fell in the area of the Old City of Jerusalem in recent days. I reaffirmed the State of Israel's unwavering commitment to freedom of religion for all faiths and to upholding the status quo at the holy sites of Jerusalem.

This is the part of the rules that a lot of the reporting is overlooking - places can open for under 50 people only if there is a shelter that can be reached within 90 seconds

Este es Pizzaballa, el que sabiendo que estaba todo cerrado fue a hacer el circo hoy. Notan algo especial en su sotana? Bueno, a ver si se enteran.

Cardinal Pizzaballa: “It is true that the police had said that the orders from the internal command prevented any kind of gathering in places where there is no shelter, but we had not asked for anything public, just a brief and small private ceremony to preserve the idea of the celebration in the Holy Sepulchre. There were no clashes; everything was done in a very polite manner. I do not want to force the issue; we want to use this situation to try to clarify better in the coming days what to do, in respect for everyone's safety but also in respect for the right to prayer."