Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Catholics urged to support Middle East Christians on Good Friday

byCNS
11 March 2015 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 2 mins read
AA
Franciscan at West Bank

Christian presence: A Franciscan priest holds a cross as he hears confession from a young pilgrim during a ceremony at the baptismal site known as Qasr el-Yahud near the West Bank city of Jericho in January 2013. This site, on the banks of the Jordan River, is believed to be the place where John the Baptist baptised Jesus. Photo: CNS/Ronen Zvulun, Reuters

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Franciscan at West Bank
Christian presence: A Franciscan priest holds a cross as he hears confession from a young pilgrim during a ceremony at the baptismal site known as Qasr el-Yahud near the West Bank city of Jericho in January 2013. This site, on the banks of the Jordan River, is believed to be the place where John the Baptist baptised Jesus.
Photo: CNS/Ronen Zvulun, Reuters

IRAQI and Syrian refugees who have fled persecution in their homelands and the Palestinian Christians struggling to survive in the land of Jesus deserve the prayers and material support of Catholics around the globe, a Vatican official said.

Catholics can “become promoters of dialogue through peace, prayer and sharing of burdens” with Middle East Christians, prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches Cardinal Leonardo Sandri said.

In a letter sent to bishops around the world, Cardinal Sandri asked for continued support for the traditional Good Friday collection for the Holy Land. Sixty-five per cent of the funds raised go to the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, an administratively autonomous province of the Franciscan order. The Franciscan Custody is responsible for most of the shrines connected with the life of Jesus as well as for providing pastoral care to the region’s Catholics, running schools, operating charitable institutions, and training future priests and religious.

The collection, taken up at the request of the pope, is administered by the Franciscan Custody and the Congregation for Eastern Churches. The congregation monitors how all funds are used, both the 65 per cent directed to the Franciscan Custody and the 35 per cent used to support projects chosen by the congregation elsewhere in the Holy Land, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Turkey, Iran and Iraq.

None of the money will be used to help offset the deficit of the Franciscan order’s headquarters in Rome. The order’s minister general United States Franciscan Father Michael Perry announced in December that because of a lack of oversight and “questionable” transactions, the generalate had a significant debt.

“From the time the collection was established, the congregation has distributed the funds directly to the Custody specifically for the projects approved,” said a friar who belongs to the Custody. “The generalate has nothing to do with the process.”

Along with Cardinal Sandri’s letter, the Vatican press office on March 10 released some details of how the 2014 collection was disbursed. It said close to $2.5 million was used to provide emergency assistance to people in Iraq and Syria; just over $2.6 million was used to support Catholic education at every level; and about $2.4 million went to a variety of small programs, including support for the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land.

The Vatican also released a list of the projects supported through the funds given to the Franciscan Custody to assist the Christian minority in the region, preserve and provide pilgrim access to the archaeological sites and Christian shrines, and support education.

Among the maintenance and restoration work carried out were projects at the basilica in the Garden of Gethsemane, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Cenacle where the Last Supper was believed to have been, the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, the archaeological dig at Magdala, Capernaum, Mount Tabor, Cana and Mount Nebo in Jordan.

The collection also helped fund university scholarships for 295 students, the purchase of equipment for 10 small artisanal businesses and the restoration of houses where some of the poorest families in Bethlehem live. In addition, assistance was provided for housing projects in the Old City of Jerusalem, in Beit Hanina and in Bethlehem, West Bank.

Related Stories

As pilgrims take to the skies again, Holy Land Christians hopeful for a better year

Israel and Hamas agree to ceasefire as Franciscans urge United States to end violence

US bishop urges end of Holy Land violence between Israelis, Palestinians

CNS

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Is capital punishment really a punishment?

Next Post

A lifelong passion becomes a beautiful legacy

CNS

Related Posts

As pilgrims take to the skies again, Holy Land Christians hopeful for a better year
World

As pilgrims take to the skies again, Holy Land Christians hopeful for a better year

10 March 2022
Airstrikes: Palestinian Suzy Eshkuntana, 6, is treated by a medic at a hospital after being pulled from the rubble of a building during Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City May 16, 2021.
World

Israel and Hamas agree to ceasefire as Franciscans urge United States to end violence

21 May 2021
Tragedies: Family and friends mourn in Eliakim, Israel, May 13, 2021, during the funeral of Omer Tabib, an Israeli soldier who was killed during cross-border fighting near Gaza.
World

US bishop urges end of Holy Land violence between Israelis, Palestinians

14 May 2021
Next Post

A lifelong passion becomes a beautiful legacy

Standing up for children

‘Hopeful’ of a reprieve

Popular News

  • Sunnybank’s ninth Multicultural Mass unites 16 languages in prayer

    Sunnybank’s ninth Multicultural Mass unites 16 languages in prayer

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Archbishop Coleridge unveils new cross at Banyo church

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Marymount College claims historic girls’ rugby league Confraternity title

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Australian Plenary Council aims to avert Church ‘moment of crisis’

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Fr El Louie Jimenez ordained

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Future First Nations teachers honoured with Rome scholarship
Education

Future First Nations teachers honoured with Rome scholarship

by Hannah Kennelly
2 July 2022
0

YOUNG Aboriginal and South Sea Islanders education students, Jedda Ellison and Hayden Kubler have been awarded the...

Marymount College claims historic girls’ rugby league Confraternity title

Marymount College claims historic girls’ rugby league Confraternity title

2 July 2022
Sunnybank’s ninth Multicultural Mass unites 16 languages in prayer

Sunnybank’s ninth Multicultural Mass unites 16 languages in prayer

1 July 2022
Evarist D’Souza

Archbishop Coleridge unveils new cross at Banyo church

1 July 2022
Netball Superstar: St John Fisher student Jayden Molo.

St John Fisher College student selected for the Australian Netball U17 Squad

1 July 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping