For more than a thousand years Christians have worshipped at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, a massive building that includes the edicule, the small chapel containing the slab on which the body of Jesus lay, and the site of the crucifixion. Even when Muslims controlled Jerusalem before the Crusades and during the Ottoman Empire, Christians were free to observe Palm Sunday and Holy Week at the Holy Sepulcher.
However, this past Palm Sunday the Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Fr. Francesco Ielpo, Custos of the Holy Land, were prevented from saying Sunday mass at the Church. Claiming security concerns because of the Israeli led war against Iran, the two who had complied with all other restrictions, including the cancellation of the procession of palms, were denied entry to the site and turned back.
Israeli President Herzog stepped in to arrange for an agreement allowing a small group of Christians access to the Church to pray. A small group will be permitted into the Church on Easter. All other churches and holy sites have been closed since February 28 due to what is being called a “military operation.” Even Pilate didn’t cancel Passover.
Prayer for the Day
All embracing God, you who are our model of love,
Bind us together in a community of love;
Teach us, we pray, how to share your love which knows no end
So we are truly live as your examples in this world.
May we learn to love without fear as did the One you sent,
In the name of the One who is your gift of love,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen
Thoughts for the Day
“[We hope] appropriate arrangements will continue to be found, enabling prayer to take place in places of worship, particularly in the holy places of all religions"
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Monday March 30, 2026
Denying entry to the Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Custos of the Holy Land, especially on a solemnity central to the faith such as Palm Sunday, constitutes an offense not only against believers but against every community that recognizes religious freedom.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.
Jesus to the Pharisees in Matthew 21:43
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher
This magnificent structure covers the equivalent of a New York City block. First built as a shrine in the early 4th century, over the rock cave traditionally identified as the tomb of Jesus and some distance away the site of the Crucifixion, it was destroyed by fire in 614 when Jerusalem was captured by the a. Sassanid ruler. Then it was rebuilt when the Emperor Heraclitus recaptured the city. After a second conquest, under Islamic rule, all Christian holy sites were protected. Two earthquakes in the 8th and 9th century partially destroyed the church. In 1009 a Fatmid caliph ordered the destruction of all Christian places of worship but after Byzantine rulers exercised some diplomacy, the holy places were restored; the trade–off was reopening the mosque in Constantinople.
Like most of the Old City, the building we have now dates from the middle ages. Fierce and often violent battles over ownership and control reflected the Christian religious battles of the Reformation, except it was between the Lain and Greek churches. Then the Ottoman Empire worked out an agreement to settle the control of holy places. After more damage from fires, in 1857 the Christians and the Turks rebuilt it to what it is now. The site contains more than a dozen chapels and altars of different Christian traditions.