The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem portal reports a homily by “Cardinal” Pierbattista Pizzaballa on Easter Sunday 2026, delivered in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The homily centers on the theme that the Resurrection “turns our world upside down” and that “The Risen One is not where we left him.” Pizzaballa describes the empty tomb as “not an absence but a proclamation,” warns against “comfortable or routine religiosity,” links the Easter message to the political conflict in the Holy Land, and emphasizes that “The Risen One is not an object of worship; he is a person who calls.” He concludes that Easter “is not a phrase to be repeated; it is a door to be walked through.” This presentation systematically dismantles Catholic dogma under the guise of pastoral renewal, replacing the objective, supernatural fact of the Resurrection with a subjective, human-centered experience. The homily’s theological bankruptcy reveals the apostasy of the post-conciliar hierarchy.
The Homily’s Modernist Foundations
Pizzaballa’s entire reflection operates on the Modernist principle that divine truth is not an objective revelation to be believed but an experience to be felt. This is precisely the error condemned by St. Pius X in Lamentabili sane exitu: “Revelation was merely man’s self-awareness of his relationship to God” (Proposition 20). By stating, “The Risen One is not where we left him; he goes before us,” Pizzaballa reduces the Resurrection to a dynamic, ever-changing human perception rather than the immutable, historical fact that Christ “rose again the third day” ( Apostles’ Creed). The empty tomb, for Catholic doctrine, is the physical, historical proof of the bodily resurrection—a tangible reality that confronts us with a divine event. Pizzaballa transforms it into a “proclamation” that exists primarily in the believer’s response: “We do not know where they have laid him” is presented as “the first expression of authentic faith.” This inverts Catholic theology: faith is not born from ignorance but from the authoritative testimony of the Church and the objective miracles recorded in Scripture. As the Roman Catechism promulgated by Pope St. Pius V teaches, the Resurrection is “a true, historical event, proved by the testimony of the apostles and by the empty tomb” (Part I, Art. 7). Pizzaballa’s emphasis on uncertainty as the foundation of faith aligns with the Modernist proposition that “Faith, as assent of the mind, is ultimately based on a sum of probabilities” (Lamentabili, Prop. 25).
Subjective Resurrection, Objective Denial
The cardinal’s assertion that “God does not allow himself to be possessed. The Risen One is not where we expected him to be. He is not confined by the boundaries of our certainties” is a direct attack on the definiteness of Catholic dogma. This language echoes the condemned error that “Truth changes with man, because it develops with him, in him, and through him” (Lamentabili, Prop. 58). The Catholic Church has always taught that the Resurrection is a singular, definitive event that broke the chains of death and inaugurated a new creation. Pope Pius XI in Quas Primas declares that Christ “has been appointed King by the Father over Zion, His holy mountain, and will receive the nations as His inheritance” (cf. Ps. II), and that His kingdom “shall have no end” (Luke I. 32-33). The Resurrection is the grounds of Christ’s kingship—a kingship that is objective, external to us, and demands our obedience. Pizzaballa’s Christ, however, is a phantom who “withdraws” to save us from “the misunderstanding—that faith is something to be possessed.” This is the heresy of immanentism: God becomes a mere projection of human religious consciousness. St. Pius X anathematized the view that “the Gospels do not prove the Divinity of Jesus Christ, but it is a dogma which Christian consciousness has derived from the concept of the Messiah” (Lamentabili, Prop. 27). Pizzaballa’s Christ is not the God-man who conquered death and ascended into heaven to sit at the Father’s right hand; He is a vague presence that eludes our “certainties,” thus nullifying the very possibility of dogma.
The Erasure of Christ’s Social Kingship
The homily’s most glaring omission is any reference to the social reign of Christ the King—a doctrine defined with absolute clarity by Pope Pius XI in Quas Primas. The encyclical states: “His reign, namely, extends not only to Catholic nations… but His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ.” Pius XI further warns that when “God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” Pizzaballa, speaking from the very city where Christ’s kingship should be most visibly honored, says nothing of the obligation of rulers and states to recognize Christ’s sovereignty. Instead, he reduces Easter to a personal “defiance of resignation” and a vague “hope that can still open… the gates of peace.” This is a deliberate silencing of the Catholic doctrine that peace is only possible in the kingdom of Christ (Pius XI). By avoiding any call for the public acknowledgment of Christ’s law in legislation, education, and public life, Pizzaballa implicitly endorses the error condemned by Pius IX: “It is false that the civil liberty of every form of worship… conduce more easily to corrupt the morals and minds of the people” (Syllabus of Errors, Error 79). His universalistic language—“God shows no partiality” and “no life is ‘too lost’ to be sought”—while superficially appealing, is a Trojan horse for religious indifferentism. Without the explicit Catholic teaching that outside the Church there is no salvation (cf. Pope Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam), such statements propagate the condemned notion that “Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation” (Syllabus, Error 16).
Silent Apostasy: Omission of Supernatural Realities
The homily is a masterclass in Modernist omission. There is no mention of sin, no reference to the necessity of sacramental grace, no warning of final judgment, no invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, no appeal to the authority of the Church. This silence is not pastoral sensitivity but doctrinal treason. St. Pius X identified this pattern: the Modernist “aims at such a development of dogmas as appears to be their corruption” (Lamentabili, Intro). By focusing exclusively on “forgiveness,” “truth,” and “hope” as abstract human choices, Pizzaballa evacuates the supernatural content of the Resurrection. The Catholic faith teaches that Christ’s victory over death is the cause of our justification, that we are “buried with Christ by baptism into death” (Rom. 6:4) and must “walk in newness of life” through the grace of the sacraments. The empty tomb is not merely an invitation to “choose forgiveness” but the proof that Christ, as our High Priest, “offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins and eternally offers it” (Pius XI, Quas Primas). Pizzaballa’s “door to be walked through” is a Pelagian gateway—a human effort devoid of sacramental reality. This aligns with the condemned proposition that “the sacraments merely serve to remind man of the presence of the ever-benevolent Creator” (Lamentabili, Prop. 41), reducing them to symbolic acts rather than channels of sanctifying grace.
The “Exodus” Heresy: Rejecting Sacred Tradition for Activism
Pizzaballa’s warning that “even holy places can become museums if they do not become an exodus” and that “the liturgy can become routine if it does not lead to conversion” is a direct assault on the sacred and the sacramental. This reflects the Modernist error that the Church must continuously “evolve” and that tradition is a dead weight. The Syllabus of Errors condemns the notion that “the method and principles by which the old scholastic doctors cultivated theology are no longer suitable to the demands of our times” (Error 13). For Catholic doctrine, holy places are not mere reminders but sanctuaries where the supernatural efficacy of Christ’s passion and resurrection is made present through the sacrifice of the Mass. The liturgy is not a tool for “conversion” in the vague psychological sense but the unbloody re-presentation of Calvary, the supreme act of worship that honors God and imparts grace. Pius XI in Quas Primas explains that the feast of Christ the King was instituted so that “the annual celebrations… will be completed and augmented by the feast of Christ the King,” emphasizing that the liturgy is the “rule of faith” that teaches the faithful. Pizzaballa’s “exodus” is a Gnostic flight from the material, visible Church into a purely spiritual activism. It is the same error that led to the destruction of altars, the profanation of sacred spaces, and the reduction of the Mass to a “table of assembly” in the post-conciliar “abomination of desolation.”
Conclusion: A Call to Return to Immutable Tradition
The homily of “Cardinal” Pizzaballa is not a pastoral reflection but a manifesto of apostasy. It substitutes the objective, historical Resurrection of Christ—the cornerstone of Catholic faith—with a subjective, ever-elusive experience. It omits the social kingship of Christ, thus aligning with the secularist errors condemned by Pius IX and Pius XI. It silences the supernatural realities of sin, grace, and judgment, promoting a Pelagian humanism. Its language of “exodus” and “door” mirrors the Modernist hermeneutic of discontinuity that has ravaged the Church since the mid-20th century. This is the fruit of the conciliar revolution: prelates who speak in the name of Christ while dismantling His doctrine. The only response is the unwavering adherence to the integral Catholic faith as it existed before 1958, the faith that defined the Resurrection as a bodily, historical event that demands the submission of all human powers to Christ the King. As Pius XI proclaimed: “May all men… allow themselves to be governed by Christ. Then at last… swords and weapons will fall from hands, when all willingly accept the reign of Christ.” Pizzaballa’s Christ does not reign; He merely “calls” in the wind of human opinion. This is not the Catholic faith. It is the religion of the Antichrist.
Source:
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem on Easter: ‘The Risen One Is Not Where We Left Him’ (ncregister.com)
Date: 06.04.2026