Franciscan General Curia
Rome.

My brothers and sisters,
I address you with urgency and concern to draw your attention to the vital importance of the Good Friday Collection for the Holy Land this Easter 2025. 

The ongoing war has brought destruction, has displaced families, and has severely tested the fragile Christian presence in those places. 

In two millennia never has the local Christian commu¬nity been more at risk from disappearing from the land where our faith was born. 

Our friars of the Custody of the Holy Land continue to remain alongside the population, despite the bombs, despite the fear, despite the daily risk. 

The Christian presence in the Holy Land is a precious asset for the entire universal Church. It is the Mother Church, from which we all come historically and spiritu¬ally. Its loss would represent an irrepara¬ble impoverishment. 

Through the Good Friday Collection, we support: 

1. The custody, care, and maintenance of the Holy Places, which are the foundation of the identity of Christians in the Holy Land and continue to speak to pilgrims from all over the world about the mystery of the Incarnation and our Redemption. 

2. Daily assistance to local Christian families, who need concrete help to survive and not be forced to emigrate. 

3. The Catholic schools of the Custody, which offer quality education to more than 10,000 students, Christians and Muslims, thus building bridges of dia-logue and peace. 

4. Healthcare and social assistance facilities, which in this time of war have become a lifeline for the wounded, for the displaced and refugees, from Syria to Lebanon, to the West Bank, and as far as Cyprus and Rhodes. 

5. The pastoral and social activities of the Franciscan parishes there, which keep faith and hope alive in the face of divisions and hatred and know how to integrate the numerous migrant workers into the local church. 

As followers of St Francis, who loved the Holy Land so much and wanted his friars to be its custodians, we have a special responsibility. Our Seraphic Father invites us today, through the urgent needs of our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land, to be peacemakers and witnesses of hope. 
Let us not allow this living Christian wit¬ness to be extinguished in the places that bear witness to where Jesus walked. 

I thank you for what you will do, and I assure you of my remembrance in prayer, especially in the Holy Places. 

May the Lord bless and sustain your commitment. 
Massimo OFM
Minister and Servant

Read the full letter on www.ofm.org