"The operation launched from Gaza and the reaction of the Israeli Army are bringing us back to the worst period of our recent history," the patriarchate, led by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said in a statement.

In his first Mass as cardinal, he acknowledged the flood of congratulations he had received from all quarters and all sects of his diocese. “Cardinals in our time are no longer the princes of the church,” Cardinal Pizzaballa said, “but its servants and those of the people of God.”

Energetic, resolutely modern, as comfortable with technology as with theology, and deeply cosmopolitan, Patriarch Pizzaballa shares Pope Francis’ intention to restore Jerusalem to its former glory.

A journalist in Israel, dressed as a priest, was spat on by ultra-orthodox Jewish extremists. Attacks against Christian groups in the region are increasing over recent years.

The Notre Dame Folk Choir was like a family I did not want to leave behind.

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been coming out into the streets for the past three months in escalating pro-democracy protests against the most politically and religiously extreme right-wing government Israel has ever had.