Cardinal Pizzaballa: The truce must hold, and everything must be done to ensure that it does. There are those who are working against it, we know tha… - Pierbattista Pizzaballa

We are made of flesh and bones, we need to experience, to touch, to see, to feel. Christianity is not spirituality, it is mysticism. Mysticism means experiencing, touching. The Shroud is a bit like the Sacraments, a kind of Sacrament. The Sacraments are a sign of an experience, of an encounter with Christ. And so it is with the Shroud. First of all, the Shroud immediately takes you back, with its image, with its reality, to two thousand years ago; and then it introduces you to that experience of resurrection and encounter with the Risen One: the Risen One who is present. Only you need to feel this presence, to touch it, and the Shroud introduces you to this experience.

A bishop cannot lead his flock without the collaboration of his priests, the religious and the faithful. He would not be a good shepherd. Today you are all with me, though not as numerous as we wished. But I know from different parts of the diocese and the world, many faithful and pilgrims of our and other diocese, are close to us in prayer, and it is in this spirit that we find ourselves as Church – the Mother Church of Jerusalem.

Dopo questa crisi, una delle più gravi in assoluto degli ultimi 70 anni, né israeliani né palestinesi saranno più disposti a soluzioni temporanee. Questi eventi obbligheranno tutti a trovare soluzioni stabili. [Due popoli, due Stati?] Non lo so. Tecnicamente mi sembra difficile, anche se sarebbe l'unica via possibile. È chiaro che qualsiasi cosa si sceglierà di fare dovrà dare garanzia di stabilità e libertà ad entrambi i popoli.