Also this year, in the name of "Communion and solidarity with the Church of Jerusalem", an appeal was launched for the Collection for the Holy Land, which comes from the will of the Popes to maintain a strong bond between the Christians of the world and the Holy Places.
In the letter sent to all the bishops of the world, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches, Card. Leonardo Sandri, urges us to think "with greater intensity of the brothers and sisters who live and bear witness to the faith in the dead and risen Christ in the Holy Land, also expressing to them solidarity with charity.”
Starting from the example of St Paul Vi, the first pilgrim Pope in the Holy Land, Cardinal Sandri wanted to underline how even today "we witness with hope a certain resumption of pilgrimages, touching with our own hands the joy of faith of so many faithful who come to the Holy Land".
HE Card LEONARDO SANDRI
Prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches
"Pilgrimage is a form of support of the holy land. The other way is not only to think, pray, and adapt to the Gospel, but to contribute concretely with our offer to the support of the church in the holy places. And this is the call that the church makes every year: this year in the letter we say: we accompany Jesus on his ascent to Jerusalem for his death and his resurrection.”
Br FRANCESCO PATTON, ofm
Custos of the Holy Land
"Thousands and thousands of pilgrims every day arrive in the Sanctuaries (...)
A well-made pilgrimage is something extraordinary for the pilgrim's experience of faith, because the pilgrim does not come to these places to see something attractive from the tourist point of view, he comes to these places to renew his faith, to read the pages of the Gospel in the places of revelation and incarnation and redemption and to live a meaningful personal encounter with Jesus Christ. For many people, the pilgrimage to the Holy Land is truly a turning point in Christian life.”
The collection is taken as usual, on Good Friday, and it is the main source of income for the Sanctuaries of Redemption and living stones.
Br FRANCESCO PATTON, ofm
Custos of the Holy Land
"It is the vocation and mission of those who keep the church alive in the places where the church was born."
