Israeli police prevented the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem , Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and the Custos of the Holy Land, Father Francesco Ielpo, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Palm Sunday Mass, the two highest Catholic officials in the Holy Land said in a joint statement on Sunday. The Patriarchate and Custody said the Palm Sunday liturgy at the Holy Sepulchre—one of Christianity ’s holiest sites—could not be celebrated by the heads of the church “for the