EWTN News reports that Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the so-called Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, issued a pastoral letter proclaiming that “Jerusalem belongs to no one; it is a gift to all of humanity.” This statement, far from being a neutral spiritual reflection, is a direct assault on Catholic ecclesiology, the supernatural mission of the Church, and the absolute sovereignty of Jesus Christ over all nations and cities—including Jerusalem, the city of the Great King. The cardinal’s vision reduces the Holy City to a mere humanitarian heritage site, stripping it of its divine consecration and replacing supernatural truth with the empty rhetoric of modernist ecumenism and secular humanism.
Denial of Christ’s Kingship Over Jerusalem
The foundational error of Pizzaballa’s letter is its explicit denial of Christ’s royal dominion over Jerusalem. By declaring that the city “belongs to no one” and is “a gift to all of humanity,” the cardinal implicitly rejects the Catholic doctrine that Jerusalem is first and foremost the city of God, redeemed by the Precious Blood of Christ, and subject to His universal kingship. Pope Pius XI, in the encyclical Quas Primas (1925), unequivocally taught that Christ’s reign “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.” This includes cities, states, and territories—especially Jerusalem, where Our Lord was crucified, buried, and resurrected.
To claim that Jerusalem “belongs to no one” is tantamount to declaring that Christ has no special claim over the city He purchased with His Blood. This is not merely a pastoral oversight; it is a heretical negation of the social kingship of Christ, condemned repeatedly by the pre-conciliar Magisterium. Pius IX, in the Syllabus of Errors (1864), condemned the proposition that “the Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Proposition 55), and that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Proposition 80). Pizzaballa’s statement is a practical application of these condemned errors: he places Jerusalem under the “heritage of humanity” rather than under the kingship of Christ.
The Modernist Heresy of Religious Indifferentism
Pizzaballa’s assertion that Jerusalem is “a gift to all of humanity” is a textbook example of religious indifferentism—the heresy that all religions are equally valid paths to God. This error was condemned by Pope Gregory XVI in Mirari Vos (1832), who denounced the “absurd and erroneous proposition” that “liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone.” It was further condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus (Proposition 15): “Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true.”
The cardinal’s vision of Jerusalem as a universal heritage for all believers—Jews, Muslims, Christians, and presumably atheists—directly contradicts the Catholic doctrine that there is no salvation outside the Church (Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus). The Second Council of Florence (1442) dogmatically defined that “no one remaining outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can become partakers of eternal life.” By treating Jerusalem as a neutral spiritual commodity for all religions, Pizzaballa effectively denies the necessity of the Catholic faith for salvation and reduces the Church’s mission to one of interreligious “dialogue” rather than conversion.
The Omission of Conversion and the Supernatural Mission
Perhaps the most damning aspect of Pizzaballa’s letter is what it completely omits: any mention of the need for conversion to the Catholic faith, the necessity of baptism, the reality of sin, the existence of hell, or the final judgment. The cardinal speaks of “healing the nations,” “dialogue,” “coexistence,” and “hope,” but never once does he call Jews or Muslims to repent and embrace the Catholic faith. This silence is not accidental; it is the hallmark of the post-conciliar apostasy, which has replaced the Church’s supernatural mission with a naturalistic humanitarianism.
St. Pius X, in Lamentabili Sane Exitu (1907), condemned the modernist proposition that “the Church is an enemy of the progress of natural and theological sciences” (Proposition 57) and that “truth changes with man, because it develops with him, in him, and through him” (Proposition 58). Pizzaballa’s letter embodies this modernist spirit: truth is not immutable but evolves according to the demands of “dialogue” and “coexistence.” The cardinal’s Jerusalem is not the city of the Great King but a secularized utopia where all religions coexist in a false peace, devoid of supernatural truth.
The False Ecumenism of the Post-Conciliar Sect
Pizzaballa’s emphasis on “ecumenical and interreligious dialogue” as a pastoral priority reveals his allegiance to the post-conciliar sect’s false ecumenism, condemned by Pope Pius XI in Mortalium Animos (1928). Pius XI warned that “the union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it,” and that “it is clear that the Apostolic See can by no means take part in [ecumenical] assemblies, nor is it in any way lawful for Catholics to give to such enterprises their favor or support.”
The cardinal’s call for dialogue “not only at the institutional level but also in daily life” is a direct violation of this papal teaching. It transforms the Church from a militant institution called to convert the world into a passive participant in a relativistic spiritual marketplace. The “Jerusalem” of Pizzaballa is not the city of the Crucified and Risen Lord but a symbol of the post-conciliar abomination of desolation, where the worship of God is replaced by the worship of man and his “human rights.”
The Naturalistic Reduction of Christianity
The cardinal’s language throughout the letter is saturated with naturalistic and humanitarian terminology: “healing the nations,” “workshops of a new humanity,” “coexistence,” “dialogue,” “hope.” These phrases, while sounding noble, are devoid of supernatural content. They reflect the modernist tendency condemned by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907), where he described the modernist as one who “substitutes for the faith of the Church a religious experience or sentiment” and reduces religion to a “vague feeling” rather than assent to revealed truth.
Pizzaballa’s assertion that “prayer is not a means” but “a moment of love and encounter with God” further reveals his modernist inclinations. In Catholic theology, prayer is both an end and a means: it is the lifting of the mind and heart to God, but it is also a means of obtaining graces, merits, and the conversion of souls. By reducing prayer to a mere “moment of love,” the cardinal strips it of its propitiatory and intercessory dimensions, aligning it with the Protestant and modernist notion of prayer as subjective experience rather than objective worship.
The Betrayal of the Holy Land’s Catholic Identity
Jerusalem is not merely a “heritage of humanity”; it is the city where Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was crucified for the salvation of the world. It is the site of the Holy Sepulchre, the place of the Resurrection, and the birthplace of the Church at Pentecost. To declare that it “belongs to no one” is to deny its sacred character and to hand it over to the enemies of Christ—Jews who reject Him, Muslims who deny His divinity, and secularists who mock His kingship.
The cardinal’s letter is not a call to hope but a surrender to the spirit of the world. It offers no supernatural remedy for the conflict in the Holy Land, no call to conversion, no exhortation to penance, no reminder of the final judgment. Instead, it proposes a false peace based on “dialogue” and “coexistence”—a peace that is not the peace of Christ but the peace of the Antichrist, who seeks to unite all religions under the banner of human fraternity, denying the unique salvific mission of the Catholic Church.
Conclusion: A Call to Reject Pizzaballa’s Modernist Heresy
The faithful must reject Pizzaballa’s pastoral letter as a manifestation of the post-conciliar apostasy. His vision of Jerusalem as a “gift to all of humanity” is a denial of Christ’s kingship, a promotion of religious indifferentism, and a betrayal of the Church’s supernatural mission. The true Jerusalem is not a secularized utopia of interreligious dialogue but the city of the Great King, redeemed by the Blood of Christ, and destined to be the eternal dwelling place of the saints.
As Pope Pius XI declared in Quas Primas: “The peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ.” There is no peace, no hope, and no healing outside the one true Church of Christ. Let the faithful pray for the conversion of the Holy Land—not through the false ecumenism of Pizzaballa, but through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and the preaching of the integral Catholic faith.
Source:
Cardinal Pizzaballa: ‘Jerusalem belongs to no one; it is a gift to all of humanity’ (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 28.04.2026