Israeli Police Meet Top Catholic Leader in Holy Land, Cut Deal to Allow Holy Week Observances

The Israeli Police forces and Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the highest-ranking Catholic official in the Holy Land, announced jointly on Monday that they had agreed to an arrangement to allow for Catholic ceremonies at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during Holy Week.

Israeli authorities banned Cardinal Pizzaballa from conducting Mass at the church on Sunday – Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week marking the arrival of Jesus to Jerusalem shortly before his crucifixion. The Israeli government had banned mass religious ceremonies at the holy sites of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity in the Old City of Jerusalem in response to continued missile fire from Iran, whose Islamist terror government has been at war with Israel and the United States since February. While mass observances are banned, Pizzaballa and another clergyman, Custos of the Holy Land Father Francesco Ielpo, were attempting to conduct a Mass that would be broadcast to the