Holy Land began the Holy Week with the traditional Palm Sunday procession and Mass in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, presided over by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Msgr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, together with 170 concelebrants of various nationalities, as well as a multitude of faithful, pilgrims, and religious.
Bishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa blessed the palms from Jericho and the olive branches from the Franciscan convent of San Salvador, which were delivered to the pilgrims who attended the event.
In the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, it is customary to go three times around the place where Jesus rose from the dead, a number that recalls the days that elapsed between the death and resurrection of Christ.
In the afternoon, the celebrations moved to the Mount of Olives, with people of different nationalities praying, praising, and singing to God in each of their languages.
Another procession for Palm Sunday was the one that began in the church of Betfagé and ended in the church of Santa Ana, next to the Puerta de los Leones.
Along with the Latin Patriarch, the Custos of the Holy Land, Friar Francesco Patton; Mons. Tito Yllana, Apostolic Nuncio in Israel and Cyprus and delegate in Jerusalem and Palestine; and numerous religious and authorities of other Christian denominations.
In his final message, Bishop Pizaballa expressed that “Jerusalem is not only a city of conflict and division, of political and religious tension, of possession and exclusion. It is also a place of meeting, of faith, of prayer, of joy, of communion and of unity. Today we have experienced it”.
“We must not be afraid of those who want to divide, of those who want to exclude or of those who want to seize the soul of this holy city. They will not succeed, because the holy city has always been and will continue to be a house of prayer for all peoples (cf. Is 56,7) and no one can possess it exclusively”, assured the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.
“We will never renounce our love for what this city represents: it is the place of Christ’s death and resurrection, the place of reconciliation, of a love that saves and transcends the borders of pain and death.”
“It is also our mission as the Church of Jerusalem: to build, to unite, to tear down barriers, to hope against all hope (cf. Rm 4,18), to bear witness with serene confidence to a way of life free from ties, from all forms of fear.”