Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the highest representative of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, happened to be in Italy on the day of Hamas's attack on Israel and the beginning of this Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, he managed to return to Jerusalem a week ago, where he had left at the end of August to attend a consistory in the Vatican, where he was created a cardinal.
He returned to the war-torn region – a far from simple journey, with the assistance of Israeli and Jordanian civilian and military authorities. Speaking to the Croatian Catholic weekly newspaper "Glas Koncila" two days after his return to Jerusalem, he has said that he feels it is his duty to be in the headquarters of his patriarchate, even though he cannot do much.
