As the situation in the Holy Land continues to escalate, on March 29 a "grave precedent" was set, according to a joint statement from leaders of the Catholic Church in Israel, who called the act "manifestly unreasonable" and a "grossly disproportionate measure."
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Franciscan Fr. Francesco Ielpo were unable to make their way to one of Jerusalem's holy places to celebrate Mass for the beginning of Holy Week.
The Israeli police prevented the two senior officials from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, where they were to celebrate Palm Sunday Mass.
The two were stopped en route, while proceeding privately and without any characteristics of a procession or ceremonial act, and were compelled to turn back. As a result, and for the first time in centuries, the Heads of the Church were prevented from celebrating the Palm Sunday Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Shortly afterward, a joint press statement from the Patriarchate and the Custos explained what had happened, expressing "profound sorrow to the Christian faithful in the Holy Land and throughout the world that prayer on one of the most sacred days of the Christian calendar has thus been prevented."
Already, the church has faced restrictions to liturgies in the midst of the war, which on Saturday marked one month. Tradition holds that within the walls of this church stand both Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified, and the tomb from which Christians believe he rose. That is why its prolonged closure during the current Middle East conflict is reverberating across the Christian world.
Earlier this week, Cardinal Pizzaballa announced the Palm Sunday procession from the Mount of Olives into the Old City would be canceled — a tradition that retraces Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. But today, the Israeli police stopped the priests this morning despite there not being a procession.
Here is the full text of the statement from Palm Sunday:
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This morning, the Israeli Police prevented the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Head of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, together with the Custos of the Holy Land, the Most Reverend Fr. Francesco Ielpo, OFM, the official Guardian of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, as they made their way to celebrate the Palm Sunday Mass.
The two were stopped en route, while proceeding privately and without any characteristics of a procession or ceremonial act, and were compelled to turn back. As a result, and for the first time in centuries, the Heads of the Church were prevented from celebrating the Palm Sunday Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
This incident is a grave precedent, and disregard the sensibilities of billions of people around the world who, during this week, look to Jerusalem.
The Heads of the Churches have acted with full responsibility and, since the outset of the war, have complied with all imposed restrictions: public gatherings were cancelled, attendance was prohibited, and arrangements were made to broadcast the celebrations to hundreds of millions of faithful worldwide, who, during these days of Easter, turn their eyes to Jerusalem and to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Preventing the entry of the Cardinal and the Custos, who bear the highest ecclesiastical responsibility for the Catholic Church and the Holy Places, constitutes a manifestly unreasonable and grossly disproportionate measure.
This hasty and fundamentally flawed decision, tainted by improper considerations, represents an extreme departure from basic principles of reasonableness, freedom of worship, and respect for the Status Quo.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Custody of the Holy Land express their profound sorrow to the Christian faithful in the Holy Land and throughout the world that prayer on one of the most sacred days of the Christian calendar has thus been prevented.
