True Peace Impossible without Forgiveness and Reconciliation, Says Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem

Konstantin Karagyozov

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa delivers a lecture at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, November 12, 2025 (BTA Photo/Milena Stoykova)

Sofia,

12.11.2025 20:56

(BTA)

There can be no true peace without the possibility of forgiveness and reconciliation, said the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, in a lecture titled “Peace on Earth – a Deep Aspiration of Humanity throughout the Ages”, delivered Wednesday at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

“Peace and forgiveness are closely linked, one cannot exist without the other. Forgiveness is not forgetting, its first fruit is liberation from hatred,” Cardinal Pizzaballa said.

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, who is visiting Bulgaria at the invitation of Assoc. Prof. Kiril Kartalov from the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at BAS, who a Corresponding Member of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, added that achieving peace is both a collective and an inner task and that all are called to be peacemakers.

The lecture’s theme was inspired by the opening line of Pacem in Terris, the encyclical of Pope John XXIII, who served as the Vatican’s nuncio to Bulgaria between 1925 and 1935.

The event was attended by representatives of Bulgaria’s religious communities, diplomats, scholars, and academics.

/RY/