VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — The head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Eastern Churches noted the “obligation” of Catholics to support Christians in the Holy Land in the annual Lenten appeal, stating that “ravenous wolves divide … spoils” of Christians who are now fleeing the Holy Land.
“The pilgrimage to Jerusalem has a history as ancient as Christianity itself, and not only for Catholics,” wrote Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches, in the Dicastery’s annual appeal for Christians in the Holy Land.
ROME: Cdl. Gugerotti @orientchurch_va notes Lenten support for Catholics in Holy Land “not merely a pious tradition for a few” but an “obligation.” Laments how Christians now fleeing HL “because they see no hope” & that “ravenous wolves divide their spoils”… pic.twitter.com/oYDqORsh6j
— Michael Haynes 🇻🇦 (@MLJHaynes) March 8, 2024
Summarizing the history of the Church’s practical and financial support for, and “solidarity with the Church of Jerusalem,” Gugerotti called on bishops around the world to highlight the appeal this year to their dioceses.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is not merely a pious tradition for a few. Everywhere in the Catholic Church, the faithful have an obligation to offer their contribution to the so-called Pontifical Collection for the Holy Land, which is collected on Good Friday or, in some regions, on another day of the year. We will do the Collection again this year, hoping in your particular generosity.
Pointing to the witness of Christians continuing to live amid persecutions, Gugerotti noted that aside from the shrines of Christ in the Holy Land “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.”
Gugerotti, a respected figure in the Roman curia who has led the Dicastery since November 2022, noted that “many” such Christians living in the Holy Land have “over the centuries … died as martyrs so as not to see their Christian roots cut off.”
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“Their Churches are an integral part of the history and culture of the East,” he added.
However, the newly created cardinal warned that the Christians who have populated the Holy Land for so long are now fleeing the land of their forbears:
But today, many of them cannot take it anymore, and abandon the places where their fathers and mothers prayed and witnessed the Gospel. They leave everything and flee because they see no hope.
Gugerotti added that following the growing exodus of Christians, “ravenous wolves divide their spoils.”
“The Christians of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and many other lands turn to us and ask, ‘Help us to spread the sweet aroma of Christ’ (2 Corinthians 2:15) again in the East,” he wrote.
Renewing his call for Catholics to support the annual Lenten appeal, Gugerotti urged the bishops to ensure that the “cry” of persecuted or distressed Christians “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, a world they don’t know, which is so different from their feelings and their way of witnessing their faith.”
He warned that should Christians in the Holy Land vanish completely, then pilgrims might cease to come to “Jerusalem and Palestine,” and “the East will lose part of its soul, perhaps forever.”
Impact of conflict in the region
Detailing the projects undertaken thanks to the 2023 collection, the Franciscans who have custody of the Holy Land wrote about the detrimental impact of Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza. “The recent worsening of the war between Palestine and Israel, from 7 October 2023 (in the Gaza Strip in a particular way, but with consequences in the entire West Bank and in Jerusalem, and regarding pilgrims, the entire country of Israel), has brought a sudden cancellation of all pilgrimages that were taking place or that had been planned,” the Franciscans wrote.
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This has entailed “the closure of all checkpoints with the impossibility of workers from the West Bank to enter Jerusalem, and with the difficulty for everybody to move with security in the entire territory.”
Notwithstanding this, the Franciscans stated that “we still continue the mission that has been entrusted to us, knowing that Divine Providence, that has willed our presence in this Land, will never cease to take care of us.”
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Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, has repeatedly condemned the violence and also regularly raised his voice in condemnation of certain aspects of Israeli military action.
Collection to support work of Christians in the Holy Land fluctuating
The annual collection for the Holy Land is an ancient custom, with direct papal support for the endeavor since, as Gugerotti noted, the Middle Ages. Pope Paul VI’s 1974 Apostolic Exhortation “Nobis in Animo” gave more recent impetus to the collection, as he highlighted the “serious religious, political and social problems existing there: these are the complex and delicate problems of the coexistence of the peoples of the region, of their living in peace, and the religious, civil and human issues concerning the life of the different Communities inhabiting the Holy Land.”
Commonly collected on Good Friday, the Lenten appeal is used for a variety of purposes across the Holy Land. The Franciscans who keep custody of the Holy Land receive 65% of the collection, as noted by the Dicastery for Eastern Churches, and the Dicastery itself receives the remaining 35% that it uses in the “formation of candidates to priesthood, the support of clergy, educational activities, cultural formation and for subsidies to the several ecclesiastical Circumscriptions in the Middle East.”
As noted by the Dicastery in a press release, in 2023 some €6,571,893.96 (or around $7,192,821.64) was received in the Holy Land collection. More precise details as to its usage are provided in the press release, and the Franciscans in charge of Custody of the Holy Land have provided a plan of what the collection’s proceeds were used for in the Holy Land itself.
However, the 2023 collection – listed in U.S. dollars, while the 2023 collection was listed in Euros – was considerably less than that conducted in 2022. The 2021 collection was more akin to the 2023 figure, as it came to $6,062,789.90, but the collections of 2020 and 2019 were $9.7 and $8.2 million, respectively.
Rounded to the nearest $100,000, the collection for the past five years is:
- 2019 –– $8.2 million
- 2020 –– $9.7 million
- 2021 –– $6.1 million
- 2022 –– $9.0 million
- 2023 –– $7.2 million
It remains to be seen what impact the raging conflict in the Holy Land and Palestine will have upon the future of Christians there, with leading religious figures consistently raising concerns about the issue.
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