Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, was born in Cologno al Serio, Bergamo, Italy and entered the order of the Friars Minor in Ferrara (Santo Spirito) before his ordination as a priest in 1990. After a period in Rome, he moved to Jerusalem that same year, obtaining a licentiate in biblical theology from the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem. Pierbattista served as Custos of the Holy Land since 2004, and in 2020 Pope Francis appointed him as the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, proclaiming him a Cardinal in 2023. 

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