The United States Catholic bishops have joined the bishops of the Holy Land in condemning the Israeli government’s plans to re-route its separation wall through the Cremisan Valley, near Bethlehem, in a way that will cut 58 Christian families off from their agricultural and recreational lands. The proposed route of the Israeli wall will also Read more
Easter will be five weeks late for Catholics in the Holy Land. Easter Sunday will be on May 5 because the Catholic Church will celebrate Easter according to the Orthodox calendar. For pastoral and ecumenical reasons, the Latin Patriarchate of the Holy Land has decided from this year onwards to follow the Orthodox liturgical schedule. Read more
The Catholic Church in the Vatican and in the Holy Land welcomed a United Nations vote on November 29 to accept Palestine as a non-member observer state. But the Vatican called for the further steps of a sovereign independent homeland for the Palestinian people and an internationally guaranteed special statute for the city of Jerusalem. Read more
Roman Catholic officials in Israel appealed to authorities this week to take a stronger stand against violence aimed at Catholic churches. An Associated Press report quoted Rev. Pierbattista Pizzaballa expressing worry over relations between Jews and Christians in the Holy Land. “I think the main atmosphere is ignorance,” Pizzaballa said in an interview with the Read more
Any potential international military action would have negative repercussions for the entire Middle Eastern region according to Custodian of the Holy Land, Fr Pierbattista Pizzaballa. The Syrian regime has no future, Pizzabella told the Pontifical Foundation Aid to the Church in Need. “Syria is going through a civil war, even if we do not refer to it Read more
Claudette Habesch, Secretary General of Caritas Jerusalem for the last 25 years, is visiting New Zealand in late February/March as a guest of Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand for its annual Lent Appeal. Catholics in New Zealand are invited to pray for peace in the Holy Land this Lent, while hearing firsthand about efforts to bring healing and hope to a land where Christ continues to suffer.
‘We are pleased to be hosting someone of such experience and standing in the Caritas network for Lent,’ says new Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand director Julianne Hickey. Ms Habesch has also been a past President of Caritas Middle-East and Northern Africa region (Caritas MONA) and a Vice-President of Caritas Internationalis.
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A two-day conference on the fate of Christians in the Holy Land took place in London this week. The conference cosponsored by the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, sought to address the threat that Christianity’s birthplace is now under. The risk, as the Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Read more