Vatican calls on bishops to support Christian community in Holy Land with Good Friday collections

Vatican City, Mar 21, 2005 / 22:00 pm

The Congregation for Oriental Churches has issued a call to bishops worldwide to support the Christian community in the Holy Land with their Good Friday collections.

Cardinal Ignace Moussa I Daoud and Archbishop Antonio Maria Veglio, prefect and secretary of the congregation, respectively, signed the letter.
 
In it, they say that, "This dicastery remains attentive to the plight of the Christian community, a community which continually diminishes because of the absence of peace and of stability.”

“Given the ongoing needs of this community,” the letter continues, “it must appeal again and again for help from each of our dioceses and from all of our ecclesiastical institutions."
 
The letter explains that the annual Good Friday collection, "aims to promote among the Christian faithful a love for the Land of the Lord. For the Church to survive there it must rely upon a loving and nurturing solidarity on the part of each Christian; a solidarity which bears witness to faith in Him Who was born in that land, Who preached the Gospel there and Who also died and was resurrected there."
 
The congregation notes that the Holy Father "continually manifests his paternal closeness to the Christians of the Holy Land."

Cardinal Daoud said that "peace in the world passes through Jerusalem, the City of Peace, that Holy City and Capital of Monotheism, as Pope Paul VI referred to it in his message of March 25, 1974, 'Nobis in animo.'

“With this in mind,” he said, “what is anticipated is that each Christian strive on behalf of this desired peace, the special gift of God which must imbue our prayer, our efforts and our solidarity."