Collection aids faith in Holy Land

Each year on Good Friday, a collection to promote a deeper love for the Holy Land among Catholics takes place in parishes around the world.

This year, Good Friday falls on March 21.

The collection supports the Church's efforts to educate, evangelize and minister to the people of the region, as well as to maintain sites associated with the life of Jesus and His followers 2,000 years ago.

Help needed

In his pulpit letter to Albany diocesan Catholics that was read in parishes last weekend, Bishop Howard J. Hubbard asked for generosity in remembering the people of the Holy Land.

"Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has invited us all to continue to sustain spiritually and materially those Catholics living in the Holy Land," the Bishop wrote. "Christians [there] urgently need your help. You can help fellow Catholics in the 'Cradle of Christianity' through your generosity."

The Collection for the Holy Land, in the words of Pope Paul VI, is "not only for the holy places but above all for those pastoral, charitable, educational, and social works which the Church supports in the Holy Land for the welfare of their Christian brethren and of the local communities." (See www.usccb.org/nationalcollections.)

Solidarity

Bishop Hubbard urged Catholics to join in solidarity with Catholics around the world, and with those living and working in the Holy Land, an area that has seen violence, political unrest and strife.

"For the Church to survive there," the Bishop said, "it must rely upon a loving and nurturing solidarity on the part of each Christian, one that bears witness to faith in Him who was born in that land, who preached the Gospel there, and who also died and was resurrected there."

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