Cardinal Leonardo Sandri argues that money collected on Good Friday is essential to helping devastated countries in the Holy Land.
CARD. LEONARDO SANDRI
Prefect, Congregation for the Oriental Churches
In recent years, the situation in the countries where the Holy Land collection will be sent has been devastating. And I am not only referring to the pandemic.
The pandemic led to a decrease in pilgrims and created financial difficulties in maintaining the many historical and religious pilgrimage sites in the Holy Land.
Even as pandemic restrictions lessen, the situation in the Middle East has not gotten any better due to frequent instability in the countries.
Cardinal Sandri warns that these problems make getting aid to these pilgrimage sites and nearby Christian communities very difficult.
CARD. LEONARDO SANDRI
Prefect, Congregation of Oriental Churches
We run the risk of finding ourselves with a Middle East without a Christian presence.
With frequent wars and economic crises in the Middle East, Christians are the first people to leave.
Since they are the vulnerable minority, they are often forced to pack their bags when problems arise.
As a result, places where the first Christian communities arose are being abandoned and with them pieces of Church history are lost.
JRB
TR: KG
