July 21, 2025

*In a breathtaking display of heroic faith amid the darkness of war, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and His Beatitude Theophilus III, Greek Orthodox Patriarch, crossed the bloodstained threshold of Gaza to bring Christ's presence to His battered flock.* For months, Tel Aviv resisted the cardinal’s yearning to be with his people, even denying him access at Christmas—but God opened a way. This week, in a rare moment of grace, the secular powers bowed before the unyielding persistence of the Church, granting the cardinal's impassioned pleas for entry, along with the delivery of critical aid and an unprecedented ceasefire to protect the Church’s mission. Inside the besieged Holy Family Parish, where over 600 Christian souls have taken refuge, Cardinal Pizzaballa celebrated a Eucharist more luminous for being held in the shadow of death. Shaken by the explosions that punctuated his homily, the cardinal proclaimed that even amidst the devil's rage, the light of Christ shines in the faces of those willing to lay down their lives in love. His message was clear: the Christian Church has not forgotten Gaza. “Remain united in Jesus,” he urged the faithful,

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