Jerusalem Prelate Urges Leaders to be Courageous

Archbishop Twal said that no region will be able to enjoy peace by itself, since "it is a gift for everyone." Along this line, he urged "building up and sustaining the moderates, because as they get more help, the extremists will have less strength."

For his part, Archbishop Sabbah celebrated his last Mass as patriarch for the Jerusalem Hebrew-speaking Catholic community on June 1.

In his farewell greeting to the patriarch, the vicar for the Hebrew-speaking Catholics in Israel, Franciscan Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, recalled how Archbishop Sabbah was the first patriarch of Jerusalem to celebrate Mass in Hebrew.

The archbishop told the Hebrew-speaking Catholics: "What is our place in the Church of Jerusalem, among the 13 churches of which she is constituted? It is a place primarily of prayer. Our prayer is the prayer of Jesus for unity. [...] We must pray for unity so that, even before the longed for unity is reached, by means of our love for one another, we might be what we are called to become. This is indeed our vocation: to be true witnesses to Jesus Christ."

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