GOOD FRIDAY COLLECTION FOR THE HOLY LAND

The traditional annual collection for the Holy land will be taken up at the liturgy on Good Friday. Parish envelope boxes contain an envelope for this purpose.

From Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, Prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches:

“From the very beginning, Christian communities of diverse traditions have safeguarded them and, for centuries, the Friars Minor of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land have cared for them with admirable fidelity.

Initiatives of great pastoral value have sprung up around those places: parishes, schools, hospitals, homes for the elderly, and assistance centres for migrants, displaced persons and refugees. Precisely to help support all this, Pope Saint Paul VI instituted the Collection for the Holy Places, repeated annually on Good Friday…

This year the Collection becomes an essential resource: after the pandemic, with the almost complete interruption of pilgrimages and the small economic activities that Christians in particular have created alongside them, many have been forced into exile. If we want to strengthen the Holy Land and ensure living contact with the Holy Places, we must sustain Christian communities that, in their various traditions, offer perennial praise to the God-with-us, also in our name. For this to happen, we absolutely need the generous support of your communities.”