EUROPE/SPAIN - “It is the duty of Catholics all over the world to sustain Christians in the Holy Land with spiritual and material assistance”: Bishop of Jerez Holy Week Pastoral Letter

Wednesday, 4 April 2007

Jerez (Agenzia Fides) - "As Holy Week comes again, our minds and hearts go to the places where the central events of the Christian faith happened”, Bishop Juan del Río of the diocese of Adisona-Jerez, Spain in a pastoral letter with the title "Holy Land: Exodus of Christians". Good Friday, the Bishops writes, “is a day when the thoughts of Catholics all over the world go to Christians still living in the Land of Jesus” a "forgotten minority among Muslims and Jews majorities in a situation of insecurity and maginalisation."
In his letter the Bishop writes "Palestine continues to be the scene of a conflict which has continued for decades and which deprives the Christian communities and institutions of adequate means to maintain and promote religious, social and cultural activities". This painful situation "provokes poverty and unemployment, with harsh consequences for families and the rest of the people. It feeds the concerning phenomenon of the exodus of Christians".
In this situation the Bishop of Jerez, recalls: "the Christian community of the mother church in Jerusalem has always been in need from the beginning", and today two thousand years later this community needs the help of brothers and sisters in the faith, so as not to be condemned to emigration. “It is therefore a duty for all Catholics in the world to sustain Christians in that Blessed Land with prayers and material assistance". The Bishop concludes his Letter with a heartfelt appeal "to all men and women of goodwill in our diocese of Asidonia-Jerez, to give generously to the collection on Good Friday in aid of our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land. Their future and consequently, the subsistence of these small communities, depends on us”. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 4/4/2007; righe 24, parole 330)


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