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“Peace is a demanding word. Peace must be prepared,” warned Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. He was commenting on the truce in Gaza, on the sidelines of an event he attended in Rome on October 15, 2025. Practically speaking, the cardinal called for change among the political and religious leaders of the Holy Land.
On Wednesday evening in the Italian capital, Cardinal Pizzaballa received the “Achille Silvestrini International Prize for Dialogue and Peace,” on behalf of Father Gabriel Romanelli and the priests and nuns of Gaza's only Catholic parish.
They were absent because they weren’t able to make the trip.
Speaking to journalists present at the event, including I.MEDIA, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem expressed caution about the peace plan for Gaza negotiated by US President Donald Trump.
“The failures of past years, of various agreements, have taught us that we must not move too quickly, even in our language, by talking about peace right away,” he said.
Responding to the violence that erupted after the agreement, he stressed that it was “unfortunately inevitable” since one cannot “suddenly go from black to white.”
“There will be ups and downs,” the prelate warned during the award ceremony.
For the cardinal, peace in the Holy Land is a “very perilous, very problematic, very fragile process, which must nevertheless be advanced in one way or another.”
He told reporters that “the next generation” will be able to achieve peace if it is supported.
Changing the leaders of the Holy Land
To build this peace, Cardinal Pizzaballa continued, it is necessary above all to “change the language,” excluding extremism and “language of contempt and exclusion.” And it’s necessary to “take action on the ground in order to restore some confidence to the population.”
The cardinal also argued that a change of leadership in Tel Aviv was “desirable” and “necessary,” but that “it will take time.” He called for such a change “for everyone, both politically and religiously,” Israeli and Palestinian alike.
Naming 90-year-old President Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) as the current legitimate representative of Palestine, he argued that it was necessary to “look to the future.”
He emphasized the role of the Christian community — which received the award on Wednesday evening — as a “symbol” of openness and welcome in “this sea of hatred, violence, and exclusion.”
The parish in Gaza “will certainly not solve the problems, but we need signs to show us the way.”
Referring to the popular demonstrations that have multiplied around the world — particularly in Italy — in support of Gaza, the Latin Patriarch welcomed the “individual and collective awareness that says no to these forms of violence.”
“We must help each other not to divide ourselves, but to look at each other,” he insisted, warning against “red lines” that should not be crossed in conflicts.
