The celebrations for Pentecost, the solemnity which crowns the Easter period and together with it represents one of the most important moments in the liturgical year, took place on 27 and 28 May in the Custody of the Holy Land. Pentecost is celebrated 49 days after Easter, when the Holy Spirit descends on the Cenacle, on to the Apostles and the Virgin Mary and the Church is born as a community animated by the “Paraclete”, i.e. the Comforter: this allows […]
The Symposium of the Churches in the Middle East, “Rooted in hope” came to an end in Cyprus on 23rd April 2023. The initiative was organized by the R.O.A.C.O. (Assembly of Organizations for Aid to the Oriental Churches), and supported by the Dicastery of the Oriental Churches to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation “Ecclesia in the Middle East” signed in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI on the Church in the Middle East on the aspects of […]
Forty days after the celebration of the Nativity of the Lord, the feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple is also celebrated, which in the Catholic tradition falls on 2 February. The feast day is called “Candlemas” because with the presentation at the Temple Jesus was formally subjected to the rules of the law, but in actual fact he was coming to meet his people, who were waiting for him in faith, becoming “light to illuminate all peoples”: […]
Mons. Rodolfo Cetoloni, Bishop of the Diocese of Grosseto (Italy), was ordained a priest in Jerusalem on 26 June 1973. With a formation as a Franciscan friar minor, the bishop had arrived in the Holy City two years earlier to complete his studies in theology. This was the start of his very strong bond with the Holy Land, which still continues today, almost fifty years later. He has been a guide for pilgrims, has encouraged pilgrimages in his diocese and […]