VATICAN CITY – The annual Holy Land Collection taken up on Good Friday “is not merely a pious tradition for a few,” but a way “for the universal Church to express solidarity with the ecclesial communities of the Middle East,” says those with the Dicastery for Eastern Churches.
On Good Friday, March 29, Catholics across the world will be asked to give to the Holy Land Collection, which is the main source of material support for Christians and the faith in the region. In 2023, the Diocese of Camden raised $123,347.
“Everywhere in the Catholic Church, the faithful have an obligation to offer their contribution, because apart from the custody of the holy places that saw Jesus, there are still Christians living and operating in the Holy Land amid many tragedies and difficulties often caused by the selfishness of the powerful of the world,” wrote Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, and Maronite Father Michel Jalakh, secretary, who was named an archbishop by Pope Francis earlier this month.
However, they wrote, “many of them cannot take it anymore,” and they are leaving everything behind to flee “because they see no hope. And ravenous wolves divide their spoils.”
“I address you so that their cry does not go unheard and that the Holy Father can support the local churches in finding new ways, opportunities for housing, work and educational and professional training, so that they may remain and not get lost in the West,” they wrote.
The Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, an administratively autonomous province of the Franciscan order, customarily receives 65% of the funds collected to preserve sacred places connected with the life of Jesus and to support Christians through its many pastoral, educational, welfare, health and social facilities throughout the Middles East.
The remaining 35% of the collection goes to the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches to fund seminaries, advanced education for priests and nuns, Catholic schools, cultural formation and for subsidies to support the churches under its jurisdiction in the Middle East. The territories that benefit from the collection are Jerusalem, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Turkey, Iran and Iraq.
With the current war in Gaza, the dicastery hopes to use funds from this year’s collection to help Pope Francis carry out a humanitarian project in Gaza or the West Bank.
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