Normally on Palm Sunday, I would speak about Holy Week that we begin today and remind all of the coming special commemorations of the Lord’s Passion, death, and Resurrection. I invite all to participate. However, with a terrible war in the Holy Land, I want to spotlight the annual Good Friday collection that has supported the holy places where our commemorations actually took place, but is broadened by necessity this year. The Vatican gave this description, and I hope if you haven’t regularly supported the Good Friday collection, you will do so this year. It is a terrible tragedy that so many sisters and brothers are now in dire need.
“The Prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches explains what the Good Friday Collection means in today’s context of war: “For those who have lost everything in those lands, it is a matter of survival. As Christians, it is our duty to restore hope.”
By Stefano Leszczynski
As every year, on Good Friday there will be a collection of offerings destined for the Holy Land—an important initiative of solidarity by the universal Church in support of the Churches and Christian communities of the Holy Land.
This year, the collection takes place in a context of war that seems to be spreading quickly, generating dramatic consequences for everyone in the region.
In a letter addressed to the entire Catholic Church to encourage contributions to the traditional Good Friday Collection, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, denounced the unceasing roar of weapons and invited everyone to reflect, so as not to become complicit with those who are setting the world on fire.
“I have the impression that most of the world does not realize the catastrophe that is striking our civilization. Those who promote war today are destroying everything that has been built since the Second World War,” the cardinal stressed, “I am not speaking only of ideals, but also of people and things—even historical monuments of immense value.”
In this context, how should people understand the Collection for the Holy Land?
It is an assumption of responsibility toward our brothers and sisters who continue to die, struck by the senseless violence sweeping the world, and who have nothing to eat and nothing with which to care for themselves. We must take on their suffering, because they are not “other than us”—they are our very flesh.
Christian communities, which have always had the sense of being merely tolerated, now fear that they may no longer be tolerated at all. As a result, they want to flee.
Take what has happened in Syria, for example: in just a few years, we have lost 80% of Christians. This means that the Holy Land—the land where Jesus was born, where early Christianity developed, where the first liturgies were formed, where the first Fathers of the Church spoke to the world and enriched doctrine, where the Councils took place—is in danger of being emptied of the living Christian presence embodied by real men and women, which is an essential part of its identity.
As a Church, we cannot resign ourselves to this, nor can we abandon these communities—who are part of such a fate. Moreover, this discrimination does not affect only them, but all “minorities,” which sooner or later are or will be threatened in the same way.
We are speaking of very ancient communities, with a clear and steadfast Christian faith, a strong spirit of solidarity, and a deep attachment to the Church, which has been a mother to all: caring for their children, finding housing so they could endure, supporting their small businesses, and above all keeping alive their faith and their sense of purpose. Where will they go? Who will welcome them? Who will preserve their identity, without which the Church itself would be deeply wounded?
Normally, the proceeds of the collection are used for development projects, micro-enterprises, reconstruction, and the restoration of holy places. What are the priorities today?
We are considering proposing to the Holy Father that part of the collection be allocated to paying school fees for Christian children attending our schools in the countries of the Holy Land and the Middle East.
These are poor families who go as far as to mortgage their homes in order to educate their children and ensure that their cultural heritage is not lost. Helping Christian families in this way also means helping them to remain and to guarantee a future for their children in their own lands. People have always been generous in contributing to the Holy Land Collection and knowing that their donations also enable children to return to school is certainly a strong encouragement to that generosity.”
Since many will not be able to attend on Good Friday when this collection is taken up, feel free to mark an envelope with ‘Holy Land Collection’ and drop it off new Sunday or anytime through the rectory mail slot. You can also use Online Giving to donate, https://sttheresaoakland.org/donate, choose Good Friday Holy Land. Any and all amounts will make a difference!