Catholic Cardinal: The Land of Israel ‘Belongs to Us’
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa has been one of the most vocal critics against Israel’s war on Gaza since 2023. In a speech on June 29 he outlined why: “Israelis ask us, ‘Why don’t you also speak about South Sudan?’ The answer is simple: Because we do not have the same relationship with South Sudan that we have with this land.” What relationship is he referring to? He said: “That land belongs to us—or rather, we belong to that land.”
South Sudan, Lebanon, Ukraine and many other countries in the general vicinity have far more Catholics than the Palestinian territories do. Israel proper is home to over 100,000 Catholics, with less than 200 in Gaza.
Why does Israel belong to the Catholic Church? Because it is the land of the Bible, the land where Jesus walked, the land of the Old Testament? Actually, Pizzaballa means it in a more literal sense.
Pizzaballa made that statement as he accepted a Prize for Dialogue and Peace from the Italian magazine Limes, one of Europe’s premier geopolitical analytical publications. The prize, Limes said, is for those who prioritize dialogue as a way to solve conflicts. This may imply Pizzaballa is a neutral mediator in the Israel-Hamas war. He isn’t. Since the start of the war, his PR stunts have made Israel look bad. He accused Israel of deliberately targeting a Catholic Church in Gaza. While other religious leaders accepted celebrations like Ramadan, Passover and Easter being scaled down due to the threat of Iranian missiles, Pizzaballa tried to hold Catholic Easter—and accused Israel of persecuting Christians when it tried to keep sites in the Old City closed.
Pizzaballa is not the only senior Christian figure with an intense interest in the Holy Land. Many evangelical Protestant groups have strong interest in it as believers in “Christian Zionism.” Zionism supports Jewish nationhood in the Holy Land for historic, cultural and religious reasons. Christian Zionism generally believes that because of the connections God made with the Jewish people in biblical times, Christians are mandated to support the State of Israel.
But when Pizzaballa says that land belongs to “us,” he means the Catholic Church and its affiliates.
On January 17, he and representatives of the Orthodox, Lutheran and Anglican churches penned a letter condemning Christian Zionism as an example of “damaging ideologies” that “mislead the public, sow confusion, and harm the unity of our flock.” The letter continued: “The patriarchs and heads of churches in Jerusalem reiterate that they alone represent the churches and their flock in matters pertaining to Christian religious, communal and pastoral life in the Holy Land.”
In other words, not only does the Catholic Church believe Jews have no right to the Holy Land, but Christians who do not follow Catholic theology have no heritage there either. Nobody has a right to the Holy Land—not Jews, not evangelical Christians, not even Muslims—except “us,” the Roman Catholic Church.
This is a continuation of the view the Vatican has had for centuries. These days, the Vatican generally doesn’t deploy rhetoric as brazen as Pizzaballa’s. It often cloaks its policy with terminology like “safeguarding minority rights” and “standing up for historic privileges.” These are euphemisms for grander ambitions.
Catholics are a small minority among the Holy Land’s Arab populations. The Vatican emphasizes their presence to increase its influence in the Palestinian movement. But the Vatican’s goal is not to sponsor a “two-state solution” or protect its own congregants. Its goal is to become the land’s new governor.
Even in modern times, the Catholic Church has opposed Jewish ownership of the Holy Land. In 1904, Pope Pius x said: “We cannot prevent the Jews from going to Jerusalem—but we could never sanction it. The Jews have not recognized our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people.” When a Jewish state was set up in 1948, the Catholic Church did not recognize it. Today, it officially supports a two-state solution—but calls for Jerusalem to be a shared city under international oversight. When Pizzabella says “the land belongs to us,” he means the Catholic Church believes it should rule.
The Bible prophesies in Daniel 11, Luke 21, Revelation 17 and elsewhere that the Vatican will eventually sponsor armies to take over Jerusalem and make the city its own. This may sound sensationalist. Statements like Pizzaballa’s show senior Catholic leaders at least would like to change the Holy Land’s status quo. This trend won’t end here.
Trumpet contributor Josué Michels wrote for our April 2025 print issue: “The Vatican is pursuing a vigorous campaign for political, social and religious change in the Middle East. In the past, such efforts have led directly to armed conflicts. The Vatican’s ambitions for the region not only recall the past but also foreshadow events prophesied in the Bible.”
To learn more, read “A Renewed Crusade for the Holy Land.”