Pizzaballa’s Naturalism and Omission of Christ’s Kingship in Middle East Commentary
Pizzaballa’s Naturalism and Omission of Christ’s Kingship in Middle East Commentary
Vatican News portal (January 13, 2026) reports on statements by “Cardinal” Pierbattista Pizzaballa during a meeting in Jordan with priests of the Latin Patriarchate. The article emphasizes his appeals for peace amidst Iranian protests, Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, and West Bank tensions while encouraging pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The “cardinal” insists no one can deny the “human desire for life, dignity and justice,” framing conflicts through purely naturalistic lenses while omitting the necessity of Christ’s Social Kingship.
Reduction of Justice to Mere Human Sentiment
Pizzaballa declares: “We see how the desire of life, dignity, and justice is inside the heart of any human being” and asserts this desire “is part of the identity of each person and community.” This reduces justice to a subjective human impulse rather than an immutable divine ordinance. Contrast this with Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas (1925), which teaches: “When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony.” By omitting the objective necessity of submission to Christ the King as the sole source of justice, Pizzaballa promotes the Modernist heresy condemned in Pius X’s Lamentabili Sane (1907), which rejects the supernatural foundation of morality (Proposition 58).
Gaza Devastation: Silent on Spiritual Causes
The “cardinal” describes Gaza’s “total devastation” and deaths from cold and medicine shortages but avoids identifying the root cause: rejection of Christ’s reign. The article states he visited Gaza in December without mentioning whether he offered the sacraments or called for conversion—a glaring omission given the Church’s missionary mandate (Matt. 28:19). The 1917 Code of Canon Law (Canon 1350) obliges bishops to “provide for the salvation of souls” in crises, yet Pizzaballa limits himself to material complaints. His silence echoes the naturalism condemned in the Syllabus of Errors (1864): “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Proposition 55).
West Bank: Surrender to Political Narratives
Pizzaballa decries “settler attacks” and permit denials in the West Bank while ignoring the Catholic doctrine that non-Catholic regimes have no divine right to govern. Pope Pius IX’s Quanta Cura (1864) anathematizes those who claim “liberty of conscience and worship is each man’s personal right”—a right Israel’s secular government falsely asserts. By lamenting “the most basic things of the community” without demanding the region’s evangelization, the “cardinal” reduces the Church’s mission to social work, violating Pope Pius XI’s warning that “the peace of Christ can only be in the Kingdom of Christ” (Ubi Arcano, 1922).
Pilgrimage as Ecumenical Theater
Pizzaballa urges pilgrims to return to the Holy Land, calling it “a fifth Gospel” and “eighth sacrament.” This blasphemously equates physical sites with sacraments—which are exclusively “efficacious signs of grace instituted by Christ” (Council of Trent, Session VII). Worse, he encourages visits while the Holy Land remains under the control of the conciliar sect and secular powers. True Catholics must reject pilgrimages administered by modernists, as they desecrate sacred spaces. Pope Benedict XV’s 1917 decree Providentissimus Deus warns against treating holy places as mere “historical relics,” yet Pizzaballa reduces them to emotional props.
Synodality: Echoing Vatican II’s Collective Apostasy
The article notes Pizzaballa attended an “Extraordinary Consistory” convened by antipope Leo XIV to discuss “synodality and mission.” Synodality—a modernist innovation—replaces hierarchical authority with democratic processes, condemned by Pope Pius VI’s Auctorem Fidei (1794) as “injurious to the Church’s divine constitution.” Pizzaballa praises “reciprocal sharing about the future of the Church,” tacitly endorsing the conciliar sect’s plan to dismantle dogma through dialogue.
Conclusion: A Shepherd Feeding Flock Stones
Pizzaballa’s statements epitomize the apostate hierarchy’s betrayal. He reduces the Church to a NGO, swaps evangelization for humanitarian platitudes, and hides behind “dialogue” while souls perish. St. Pius X’s Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907) exposes this as Modernism’s essence: “the annihilation of revelation, the negation of the divinity of Christ, and the destruction of the Church’s authority.” Until the true Church’s restoration, no “peace” exists—only the false ecumenism that fuels eternal ruin.
Source:
Cardinal Pizzaballa: No denying the human desire for life, dignity and justice (vaticannews.va)
Date: 13.01.2026