ROME (RNS) – Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, a leading figure in the Catholic Church’s advocacy for peace in the Middle East, said new leadership in Israel and the Palestinian territories is needed to bring back hope to their suffering populations after the ceasefire agreement signed earlier this week.
“A change of leadership is necessary to have a change in future prospectives,” said Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, adding that related religious institutions could benefit from leadership change as well.
Commenting on the ceasefire agreement in Rome on Wednesday (Oct. 15), Pizzaballa cautioned against using the term “peace” too quickly, as violence continues to ensue in the rubble-strewn streets of Gaza.
“Peace needs to be prepared,” he said. “The failures of the various agreements in the past taught us that one must not rush to use the term peace. The next generation will be able to build it, but only if this generation prepares it.”
He also said the ongoing violence in Gaza is “unfortunately inevitable” and part of the “difficult, challenging and fragile” journey toward building peace. But to create it, the cardinal said there must be a change in the way people are communicating, saying “too much space was left to extremists who used the language of hatred and …