Known as the Collecta pro Terra Sancta, the collection taken every year on Good Friday to assist the faithful in the Holy Land has never been so important as Catholics around the world will be given an opportunity to help relieve the desperate needs of Christians whose suffering at the hands of Islamic terrorists has reached crisis proportions.

“Presently, there are millions of refugees fleeing Syria and Iraq, where the roar of arms does not cease and the way of dialogue and concord seems to be completely lost,” said Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.

“Senseless hatred seems to prevail instead, along with the helpless desperation of those who have lost everything and have been expulsed from the land of their ancestors. If the Christians of the Holy Land are encouraged to resist, to the degree possible, the understandable temptation to flee, the faithful throughout the world are asked to take their plight to heart.”

The territories that will benefit from the Collecta are: Jerusalem, Palestine and Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Ethiopia and Eritrea, Turkey, Iran and Iraq.

In addition to being used for the maintenance and restoration of the Holy Places in the region, last year’s Collecta brought much-needed aid to Christians in Syria and Iraq, and also funded parish communities, the building of apartments for poor families and young couples in Jerusalem along with many other projects.

Cardinal Sandri is asking the faithful to be generous this year and to seize this chance “to become promoters of dialogue through peace, prayer and sharing of burdens.”

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