“Hope donation, peace transplant”: The Great Friday Group of the Holy Land

Vatican News

The theme of the Great Friday group 2025, also known as the group For holy placesHope Jubilee: “Give hope, cultivate peace.” It is – as a reporter of the nursery of the Holy Land – to a specific gesture in favor of the places and needs of that region in which the remaining few Christians need religious societies, youth, and the future of these societies, but they are also those who need patients and the elderly to help, be present and immediate, even to treat damage to war actions to the population.

The group, born thanks to the motivation of St. Paul VI, the Apostolic We are in my mind March 1974, born with the aim of strengthening the relationship between Christians all over the world and holy places. The offers collected by parish and bishops, through the Commissioner of the Holy Land, are transferred to the custody of the Holy Land. The areas that receive support from the group are: Jerusalem, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus; In addition, the countries where Eastern Christian societies are: Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq and Turkey.

Franciscan commitment

Franciscan monks are committed to the custody of the Holy Places, such as the Bazilicas of the Holy Try, the announcement of the cradle and dozens of other reserves that represent an invaluable heritage of the Christian world. The nursery has 270 missionaries from more than 30 countries. They welcome the believers in 55 reserves, 22 diocese, 6 pilgrims’ homes, 5 houses for patients and orphans, as well as 15 active schools with 12 thousand students, more than 500 scholarships and 3 academic institutes. It provides job opportunities to 1100 local people and runs about 630 families’ homes in difficulties.

In Palestine, they work in a context characterized by conflict and daily tensions, and they are mainly dealing with education; In Israel, we work so as not to dispense with the Catholic society and we are active in buying homes to donate the poorest families. In Jordan, the monks are devoted to the migrant community in the country and support the most vulnerable people. In Lebanon, there are many pastoral activities targeting children, and finally, in Syria, which was destroyed by years of civil war, monks distribute food and provide medical assistance to the most needy. Each month, nearly three hundred people receive essential medications to treat chronic diseases. In some cases, the Franciscan covers the total cost of surgeries, while cooperating in other cases with church societies, such as the Greco-Ortodox community, to cover expenditures.

The collapse of the economy

With the increasing tension in the Holy Land, the pilgrims stopped reaching and this had a significant impact on the economy. The great Friday collection, along with the Hajj, represented the main source of financing. “By her generosity,” the Holy Land Guard, Francesco Patton, writes, “We can protect and transform the holy places to the places of prayer and reception on the believers and pilgrims; respond to emergency situations; support schools, clinics, dispensaries, housing for housing and the young family; enhance the actions of migrants, and their assistance to hope.