The Holy See has made public a letterThe Holy Father, on the eve of the Easter Triduum, addressed to the Catholic community residing in Holy Land. A community that, as the Pope underlines in the letter, wishes to remain in their land "where it is a good thing that they can stay".
After almost eight months of conflict in this land, Pope Francis wanted to address, in a special way, "all those who, at this moment, are painfully suffering the absurd drama of war, the children who are denied a future, those who weep and suffer, those who experience anguish and disorientation".
"Seeds of good" in the midst of conflict
The Pope wanted to thank these men and women for their "Thank you for your "witness of faith" and thanked them for "the charity that exists among you, thank you because you know how to hope against all hope".
In this regard, and recalling the many times that these Christians have given witness to their faith and hope, Francis stressed that in "these dark times, when it seems that the darkness of Good Friday covers your land and so many parts of the world are disfigured by the useless madness of war, which is always and for everyone a bloody defeat, you are torches lit in the night; you are seeds of good in a land torn apart by conflicts".
The Pope assured that he prays for them and with them and stressed that "we will not leave you alone, but will remain in solidarity with you through prayer and active charity".
Francis said in this letter that he hopes to be able to return soon to the Holy Land to share with this community "the bread of fraternity and to contemplate those shoots of hope born from your seeds, scattered in pain and cultivated with patience".
The Church in the conflict
The majority of the Catholic population in the Holy Land is of Arab origin and is located mainly in various Palestinian cities.
The work currently being carried out by the Catholic parish of the Holy Family in Gaza is particularly intense. Currently, the parish welcomes more than half a thousand refugees and serves tens of thousands of people from the strip. Pope Francis follows, on a daily basis, the pastoral and assistance work of this parish and, since last October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel unleashing the conflict, he has insisted in his speeches on the need to achieve a peace agreement for the Holy Land.
