In preventing Cardinal Pizzaballa from accessing the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Israeli officials garnered such instant and widespread condemnation that even when the government’s eventual U-turn arrived, it was too late to halt the court of public opinion.
As is now widely known, Cardinal Pizzaballa was blocked from reaching the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Sunday as he made his way there privately with the Custos of the Holy Land. Officials defended the move as born out of concern for the cardinal’s safety, although Pizzaballa’s small group conformed to the regulations currently in place regarding public gatherings and public worship. These have been established in light of the war with Iran and the threat of missile strikes.
