ROME: Pope Francis sent a letter today to the Catholics of the Holy Land on the occasion of the glorious Feast of the Resurrection.
‘For some time, you have daily been in my thoughts and prayers. Now, on the eve of this Easter that for you is so overshadowed by the Passion and, as yet, so little by the Resurrection, I feel the desire to write to you and to tell you how close you are to my heart,’ said the Pope.
The letter read: ‘I embrace all of you, in the variety of your rites, dear Catholic faithful living throughout the Holy Land. In a particular way, I embrace those most affected by the senseless tragedy of war: the children robbed of their future, those who grieve and are in pain, and all who find themselves prey to anguish and dismay.’
Easter, the heart of our faith, is all the more significant for you who celebrate this feast in the very places where our Lord lived, said the Pope, stating that: ‘The history of salvation, and indeed its geography, would not exist apart from the land in which you hav
e dwelt for centuries. There you want to remain, and there it is good that you should remain. Thank you for your testimony of faith, thank you for the charity that exists among you, thank you for your ability to hope against all hope.’
‘I would like each of you to feel my paternal affection, for I am conscious of your sufferings and your struggles, particularly in the course of these recent months. Together with my affection, may you sense the love of Catholics throughout the world,’ added the letter.
‘I think back on the pilgrimage I made among you ten years ago, and I would like to make my own the words that, fifty years ago, Saint Paul VI – the first Successor of Peter to travel as a pilgrim to the Holy Land – addressed to the faithful everywhere: ‘The continuing tensions in the Middle East, and the lack of concrete progress towards peace, represent a constant and dire threat not only to the peace and security of those peoples – and indeed of the entire world – but also to values supremely dear, for diff
erent reasons, to much of mankind.’
In these bleak times, when it seems that the dark clouds of Good Friday hover over your land, and all too many parts of our world are scarred by the pointless folly of war – which is always and for everyone a bitter defeat – you are lamps shining in the night, seeds of goodness in a land rent asunder by conflict, said the Pope.
He asked Christians throughout the world to manifest their concrete support for Christians in the Holy Land and to ‘pray tirelessly that all the people of your beloved land may dwell at last in peace.’
Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA