The Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land covers Israel, the occupied territories in Judea and Samaria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
They are all under threat, and it is only a matter of time and convenience before ISIL martyrs some poor group for Franciscan brothers. No one reading this deep down believes otherwise.
This Good Friday, tens of thousands of Catholic parishes and millions of Catholics will be donating to preserve the Custodia Terra Sanctae — yes, preserve — in the Holy Land. A place where the Franciscan Order has survived for over 700 years… and today like many other Christian communities, is today under threat of being exterminated from the very place of Christ’s birth.
From the Prefect of the Congregation for Oriental Churches, Cardinal Leonardo Sandrini:
Presently, there are millions of refugees fleeing Syria and Iraq, where the roar of arms does not cease and the way of dialogue and concord seems to be completely lost. Senseless hatred seems to prevail instead, along with the helpless desperation of those who have lost everything and have been expulsed from the land of their ancestors.
If the Christians of the Holy Land are encouraged to resist, to the degree possible, the understandable temptation to flee, the faithful throughout the world are asked to take their plight to heart. Also involved are brothers in Christ who belong to various confessions: an ecumenism of blood which points toward the triumph of unity: “ut unum sint”! (Jn 17:21).
This year presents a still more precious opportunity to become pilgrims in faith after the example of the Holy Father, who in May of last year visited this patch of land, so dear to Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. It is a chance to become promoters of dialogue through peace, prayer and sharing of burdens, because “the way of peace is strengthened if we realize that we are all of the same stock and members of the one human family; if we never forget that we have the same Father in heaven and that we are all his children, made in his image and likeness.” (Homily of Pope Francis during the Holy Mass at the International Stadium of Amman, 24 May 2014).
The little flock of Christians, spread throughout the Middle East is called “to promote dialogue, to build bridges in the spirit of the Beatitudes (cf. Mt 5:3:12), and to proclaim the Gospel of peace…” (Ibid., Letter to Christians in the Middle East).
Only in the unity of the Spirit and in fraternal charity with all disciples of Christ, can the Church, His Spouse, bear witness to hope before her children who daily live the same sufferings of the Lord, humiliated and abandoned.
I trust that the Good Friday Collection will be welcomed by all of the local Churches, resulting in an ever greater participation in the solidarity coordinated by our Congregation in order to guarantee the Holy Land with necessary support, both for the demands of ordinary ecclesial life and for particular necessities.
Give this some prayerful consideration, regardless of your denomination. Christians in the Middle East band together more than folks realize (because they have to), and it would mean a lot to the Custody to hear from you and know you support them.
Believe me… as much as a soldier in Afghanistan needs to hear it, a soldier in Christ inside Syria needs to hear, see, and feel your confidence just the same.
