The cardinal described this annual collection, instituted by Pope Paul VI, as not only “an act of generosity of material contribution for these holy places for the Holy Land, but above all a spiritual moment of conversion, of sharing.”
With the collection, we are “approaching Jesus even ‘physically,’ we say, because we go where he has put his feet, where he has put his hands, where he has placed his gaze in these places,” he commented.
Sandri highlighted how the collection has helped to fund the renovations of both the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the revered church built on the site where Jesus was buried.
The collection also supports seminarians and priests, as well as Catholic schools and humanitarian initiatives in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and other countries in the region.
“For example, it is truly admirable that many Catholics in the world and in the United States and other countries, while offering a small sum, become protagonists, involved in the welfare and in the possibility of living as Christians in these countries, as in Syria,” Sandri said.
Credit: Source link
