Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the patriarch of the Holy Land, leads Mass at Our Lady of the Ridge in Chicago Ridge.
Hundreds of Arab Catholics flocked to Mass in Chicago Ridge on Saturday as a high-level Catholic priest from Jerusalem greeted them, participated in the ceremony and pushed for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, appointed the patriarch of the Holy Land by Pope Francis, greeted parishioners and shook hands at Our Lady of the Ridge as a choir sang a traditional Arabic greeting, called “zaghrouta,” meant to honor someone. At a press conference before holding Mass, he reminded the community that the Holy Land is under siege in the war between Israel and Hamas, and he called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“Peace is not just an agreement; it is the desire to live close to one another peacefully,” Pizzaballa said. “We are not there yet and we do not know when we will be there. … The first step is to stop the violence.
