Pierbattista Pizzaballa OFM

Pierbattista Pizzaballa was born in 1965 in the province of Bergamo, Italy. He entered the Franciscans in 1984, was sent to Jerusalem in 1990, and took a licentiate in biblical theology at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum. Ministering in the Holy Land from 1993, he taught biblical Hebrew, coordinated the 1995 publication of the Roman Missal in Hebrew, and served the Hebrew-speaking Catholic community as superior of Sts Simeon and Anne House and then as its vicar. In 2004 he became Custos of the Holy Land — guardian of the Franciscan shrines — serving three terms until 2016.

When the Latin Patriarchate fell vacant, Pope Francis sent Pizzaballa as apostolic administrator in June 2016 — breaking with the tradition of Arab patriarchs — and on 24 October 2020 appointed him Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, the first non-Arab in the post since 1987. Francis created him a cardinal on 30 September 2023, with the title of Sant'Onofrio: the first Latin Patriarch ever made a cardinal. Days later the Gaza war began. In October 2023 he offered himself in exchange for the children taken hostage by Hamas: “If this can lead to freedom and bring those children back home, no problem. On my part, absolute willingness.” He visited Gaza's besieged Holy Family parish repeatedly through the war, and was discussed among the leading candidates at the 2025 conclave.