English Wall

(Rome/e.p.) - “The annual Lenten journey towards the Pasch of the Lord offers a propitious occasion to sensitize the Catholic Church around the world with regard to the Holy Land by promoting relevant initiatives of prayer and fraternal charity.”

So begins this year’s appeal to bishops for the traditional Good Friday collection for the Holy Land.

Signed March 1st by Cardinal Leonardo Sandri and Archbishop Cyril Vasil, respectively prefect and secretary of the Congregation for Oriental Churches, the letter reminds the world’s bishops “of the unceasing request of Pope Benedict XVI that the mission of the Church in the Holy Places be generously supported.”

The work carried out by this mission is specifically pastoral, the letter notes, but at the same time offers “a praiseworthy social service” to all without exception. “In this way, fraternity, which can overcome division and discrimination, increases and gives renewed impetus to ecumenical dialogue and interreligious collaboration,” the letter continues. “This constitutes an admirable work of peace and reconciliation, which is all the more necessary today.”

The letter recalls the Pope’s concerns for those in the Middle East where hostilities and acts of violence continue, particularly Syria and the Holy Land. And it stresses that Good Friday seems “more fitting than ever” this year because of the sufferings faced in the entire Middle East, both by pastors and the faithful.

“For the disciples of Christ, hostility is often the daily bread which nourishes the faith and sometimes makes the echo of martyrdom,” the letter explains. “Christian emigration is exacerbated by the lack of peace, which tends to impoverish hope, changing it into the fear of facing alone a future that seems to exist only in the abandonment of one’s own country.”

But it says the dawning of a new day in the region “requires support now for schools, medical assistance, critical housing, meeting places, and everything else that the generosity of the Church has devised.” It praises the “great faith” of young people and those striving for reconciliation and forgiveness who, in the spirit of the Beatitudes, have committed themselves to work for justice and peace through non-violent, evangelical means.

“We have the duty to restore the spiritual patrimony which we have received from these Christians’ two millennia of fidelity to the truth of the faith. We can and must do this by our prayer, by concrete assistance, and by pilgrimages,” the letter says. “The Year of Faith, which marks the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, will provide particular motivation for us to direct our steps towards that Land, journeying first in our hearts through the mysteries of the life of Christ in company with the Holy Mother of the Lord.

“Next Good Friday, around the Cross of Christ, let us be conscious of being together with these brothers and sisters of ours,” the letter continues. “May the loneliness that is at times strongly felt in their situation be overcome by our fraternity! May they be able to proclaim in serenity of both body and spirit that "Jesus is Lord"

In closing, the Congregation said it was pleased to express the Holy Father’s “profound gratitude to bishops, priests, religious men and women, to young people and to all who have given of themselves for the benefit of the Land of Jesus.” It also conveyed the “abundant thankfulness” of the Patriarchal Diocese of Jerusalem, of the Franciscan Custody, and of the local Oriental Catholic Churches.

© http://www.terrasanta.net/tsx/index.jsp - 6 marzo 2012