Joining the Catholic Church throughout the world, the Diocese of Trenton will take up a special collection in parishes on Good Friday, April 15 – the Pontifical Good Friday Collection, which benefits the Holy Land.

This special annual collection, which originated from the Popes’ desires to maintain the bond between the holy places of the Holy Land and Christians across the globe, is the main source of sustenance for those living there and funds the preservation of sites of religious significance to the Church. Since the Pastoral of Pope Leo XIII, dated Dec. 26, 1887, all Popes have prescribed as mandatory the Collection for the Holy Places of the Holy Land. The collection was amplified through Pope Paul VI’s 1974 Apostolic Exhortation, Nobis in Animo.

[[In-content Ad]]

The Pontifical Good Friday Collection is also the tool through which the Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy land can help maintain pastoral, educational, welfare, health and social structures. The territories benefitting from the collection include Jerusalem, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Turkey, Iran and Iraq.

While the states of Israel and Palestine have a population of some 10 million people, the 180,000 Christians living there represent less than two percent of the population.

“To check the exodus from the Holy Land of Christians whose lives are rendered particularly difficult, the Franciscan Custody implements numerous initiatives,” explains the website for the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America. “In addition to ensuring the guard of the shrines, the Good Friday collection allows the living stones to inhabit the Holy Places – and in so doing bear witness to the Resurrection of Christ.”

The Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America is the home of a world-wide Commissariat of Friars Minor and monasteries who function as bridges between the Holy Land and Christians all over the world. The Commissariat offices at the Monastery in Washington, D.C., coordinate the vital support for the work of the Franciscans who work in the Holy Land.

“It is vital that we care for the Christians living in the Holy Land in order to maintain a Christian presence in a land that is filled with a majority Islamic and Jewish population,” the Franciscan Monastery website notes.

More information about the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land – as well as a link to donate online for those who are unable to attend Good Friday services – can be found at https://myfranciscan.org/pontifical-good-friday-collection/.