"Now I would like to announce that on the 30th September 2023 I will hold a consistory for the appointment of new cardinals. Their origin expresses the universality of the Church, which continues to announce the merciful love of God to all the men and women of the Earth", said Pope Francis on Sunday, the 9th July, 2023, during the Angelus in St. Peter's Square in Rome.
Amongst the twenty-one cardinals there is one of our brothers, His Beatitude Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. Br. Massimo Fusarelli, Minister General, welcomed the appointment with great joy and saw it as a sign of esteem and support for the Holy Land: "It is with great joy that we welcomed the appointment of our Brother Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, as Cardinal. A sign of esteem and support for the Holy Land and our Franciscan presence in those places".
Brief biographical outline of His Beatitude Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM (from www.vatican.va)
He was born in Cologno al Serio, Italy, on the 21st April, 1965. He attended Middle School at the Minor Seminary "Le Grazie" in Rimini and obtained his classical maturity at the Archiepiscopal Seminary of Ferrara (June 1984). He has been in the Order of Friars Minor since the 5th September 1984 at Ferrara (Santo Spirito-The Holy Spirit) and spent his year of novitiate in the Franciscan Shrine of La Verna (Arezzo-Italy). He made his Temporary Profession at La Verna on 7th September, 1985 and his Solemn Profession on the 10th October 1989 in Bologna, at the Church of St. Anthony. Thereafter, on the 15th September 1990, also in Bologna, he was ordained a priest. After spending a period in Rome, he then transferred to Jerusalem in the Holy Land, in October 1990. After his philosophical-theological studies, he obtained a Master’s Degree in Biblical Theology at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem.
His Beatitude Pizzaballa speaks Italian, Modern Hebrew and English. In 1995, he edited the publication of the Roman Missal in Hebrew and translated various liturgical texts into Hebrew for the Catholic communities in Israel. On the 2nd July 1999 he formally entered the service of the Custody of the Holy Land. He served as Vicar General of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem for the pastoral care of Hebrew-speaking Catholics in Israel. Since 2008 he has been a Consultor in the Commission for Relations with the Jews of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
He made his solemn entrance into St. Saviour’s friary on the 2nd June , 2004, and then at the Holy Sepulchre on the 3rd June, 2004, at Bethlehem on the 4th June, 2004, and at Nazareth on the 9th June of the same year. Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa was appointed Custos of the Holy Land for the first time in May 2004, for a period of six years. In May 2010 he was reconfirmed by the Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor for another three-year term and, in June 2013, for a further three years. On the 24th June, 2016, His Holiness Pope Francis appointed fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa Apostolic Administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem sede vacante, until the appointment of a new Patriarch. On the 15th July, 2016, on the occasion of the meeting of the College of Consultors of the Latin Patriarchate, His Beatitude Patriarch Emeritus Fouad Twal proceeded to transfer his powers to Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, designated Apostolic Administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem as per the decree of Pope Francis.
His Episcopal ordination took place in September 2016 in Bergamo, Italy. On the 24th October, 2020, Pope Francis appointed Msgr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa as the new Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.
To our brother Pierbattista, we wish him every blessing. He will be accompanied by the prayers of the whole Order so that his ministry to the Church of the Holy Land and to the people of the Middle East may bear abundant fruit of peace and goodwill.