On the 17th March, the Holy See Press Office published the Letter of the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, addressed to all the Catholic Bishops of the world for the Collection of Christians in the Holy Land.
The fragility of the truce in place, the Letter reads, does not guarantee stability and does not solve the present problems: "We have seen tears, despair, destruction everywhere. Now our hope is that the triumph of inflicted death will not be His eternal victory. And we are reminded of seeing the Risen One, Jesus Christ our Lord, who showed the wounds of His passion alive in that very Land."
The Good Friday Collection for the Christians of the Holy Land becomes an essential tool for their presence in those territories: "For us Christians, the Holy Places have a particular value, they are the incarnation of the Incarnation. They have been guarded from the beginning by the Christian communities, in the variety of their traditions, and for centuries the Friars Minor of the Custody have cared for them with admirable fidelity [...]. After the pandemic and the almost complete interruption of pilgrimages and small activities created alongside them, many Christians have been forced into exile. If we want to strengthen the Holy Land and ensure living contact with the Holy Places, we must support Christian communities which, in their diversity, offer their perennial praise to God-with-us, also in our name. But for this to happen, we absolutely need the generous gift of your communities."
The Collection of the Holy Land was established by Pope Paul VI with the Apostolic Exhortation Nobis in animo of the 25th March, 1974, to help support the presence of Christians in the Holy Places.
Read the full text of the Letter of the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches
Source: Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office of 17 March 2025