Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, speaks during Sunday morning mass at the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Family in Gaza City on July 20, 2025.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa never uses the word genocide to describe Israel’s destruction of Gaza during its two-year war with Hamas , which, according to Palestinian health authorities, has killed more than 67,000 Gazans through aerial attacks, land assaults and famine.

I ask the Vatican’s Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem why he avoids the term even though many Catholic priests have used it, as have the International Association of Genocide Scholars and two Israeli human-rights groups. The Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, this week called Gaza a “massacre” zone.

Here's what you nee

See Full Page