This represents the lowest moment between the Catholic Church and the Israeli government in modern history.

The relationship has weathered disagreements over Palestinian statehood, disputes over Vatican diplomatic recognition, and decades of tension over the status of Jerusalem’s holy sites.

But physically barring the patriarch from the Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday — the day Christians commemorate Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem — crosses a line that no prior dispute approached.

The government of Israel prevented the Catholic Church from worshipping at the place where it believes salvation began.

I believe the path toward an amicable future between the Catholic Church and the State of Israel runs through one necessary change: Benjamin Netanyahu must leave office.