Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa

Date of Birth: April 21, 1965

Nationality: Italian

Position: Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem

Experience: Member of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor

Made a cardinal by: Francis

At 60, Pizzaballa is on the young side to be pope, but he is a favorite of many Italian Vatican watchers eager to see an Italian take back the papacy after three non-Italians.

He has served in Jerusalem for more than three decades, moving to the city from his native Italy just a month after his ordination. Pizzaballa served as custodian of the Holy Land for 12 years, responsible for all of the Catholic properties in the region.

In 2016, Francis appointed Pizzaballa to fill the vacant seat of the Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem — the representative of Catholics in Israel, Cyprus, Jordan and the Palestinian territories — and made it official in 2020. Pizzaballa was elevated to cardinal in 2023.

A fluent Hebrew speaker, Pizzaballa has translated various liturgical texts into the language for the Catholic communities in Israel. He gained favor in Israel after offering to take the place of children being held hostage in Gaza a week after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. Some 251 people, including dozens of children, were abducted.

Earlier that year, ahead of Easter, Pizzaballa warned in an interview with The Associated Press that the region’s 2,000-year-old Christian community has come under increasing attack, with Israel’s government emboldening extremists who have harassed clergy and vandalized religious property at a quickening pace.

Pizzaballa has traveled extensively around the region, including to help celebrate a special pre-Christmas Mass in Gaza last year. “I want to say, to tell you, that all the world, not only the Christian world, all the world is with you, so the war will finish and we will rebuild,” the cardinal said, urging Gazans to never be afraid.

— By Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem

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