Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa
SANCTIFYING OFFICE
Centrality of the Word of God
According to those who have worked closely with him, what “undoubtedly” keeps the cardinal focused, especially amid conflict, “is his devotion to meditating on the word of God.” Close collaborators also observe that his “teaching and preaching, his public addresses and his messages have at their very core the Gospel.”
Pizzaballa’s perspective is not so much one of exegesis as of a living encounter with Christ through Scripture. “The Word of God is a love letter written for us by Him who knows us like no one else: by reading it, we hear His voice again and receive His message for us,” he told the faithful in January 2024, encouraging them to celebrate the Sunday of the Word of God.
Without a relationship with Scripture,” he confessed at a meeting with Italian priests and seminarians at the beginning of 2024, “in these months [of war] I would be lost. (…) It is a Word that gives life, that guides and …