
When Shepherds Enter the Storm: What Cardinal Pizzaballa's Gaza Visit Reveals About Presence as Healing
On June 22, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Orthodox Patriarch Theophilus III entered the Gaza Strip together, not as diplomats, but as shepherds. Their visit to the Holy Family parish — Gaza's only Catholic church — offers a case study in how embodied pastoral presence functions as psychological and spiritual healing for communities under chronic trauma. For the broader Church, the visit also raises an urgent practical question: what does accompaniment require when the shepherds cannot always be there in person?




