Religious quotes and news – March 29, 2026
Snippets of religious statements and highlights of events from around the world
Immoral and unjustified
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, condemned the war in the Middle East as immoral and unjustified:
“The war is first and foremost political, and has very material interests, like most wars,” he said, and he condemned the use of “pseudo-religious language, which speaks not of God, but of ourselves” to justify it.
“The abuse and manipulation of God’s name to justify this and any other war is the gravest sin we can commit at this time. As believers… we need to say that no, there are no new crusades.
“If God is present in this war, he is among those who are dying, who are suffering, who are in pain, who are oppressed in various ways, throughout the Middle East.”
Pizzaballa’s comments are a direct rebuttal of US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who quoted Psalm 144 to invoke a divine blessing on the ongoing US-Israeli military campaign against Iran.
Meaning of Lazarus’s resurrection
During his Angelus address last Sunday, Pope Leo reflected on the resurrection of Lazarus:
“Christ’s grace illumines this world, which seems to constantly search for novelty and change, even at the cost of sacrificing important things – time, energy, values, affections – as if fame, material goods, entertainment and fleeting relationships could fill our hearts or make us immortal. It is a symptom of a longing for the infinite that each of us carries within us, a need that cannot be satisfied by passing things. Nothing finite can quench our inner thirst, for we are made for God, and we find no peace until we rest in him (cf. Confessions, I, 1.1).
"The account of the resurrection of Lazarus, then, invites us to listen to this profound need and, with the power of the Holy Spirit, to free our hearts from habits, conditioning and ways of thinking which, like boulders, shut us away in the tomb of selfishness, materialism, violence and superficiality. In these places there is no life, but only confusion, dissatisfaction and loneliness.”
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)