Posts Tagged
Holy Land
What is the Jerusalem Cross?
By Matthew Bunson National Catholic Register, Nov 19, 2024 / 07:00 am The Associated Press recently claimed that President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, had tattoos supposedly connected with Christian nationalism and even white supremacy. It focused especially on the tattoo of a Jerusalem Cross on …
Where are all the pilgrims? The current state of religious tourism in the Holy Land
By Marinella Bandini Jerusalem, Jun 4, 2024 / 07:00 am During the month of May in Jerusalem, the major holidays of the three major religions — Christian Easter, Jewish Passover, and the month of Ramadan — passed with an almost total absence of pilgrims from abroad. The holy sites and the …
U.S. Bishops’ President and Chairman of International Justice and Peace Issue Holy Week Call to Prayer for an End to the Israel-Hamas War
March 23, 2024 WASHINGTON – Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, and president of the U.S. Conference of Bishops (USCCB), and Bishop A. Elias Zaidan of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon, the chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on International Justice and …
Israel-Hamas war casts pall over Christmas Eve vespers in Bethlehem
By Marinella Bandini Bethlehem, Dec 24, 2023 / 13:04 pm On Sunday, Dec. 24, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, made his entrance into Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas. It was also his first entrance into the “City of Christmas” since being made a cardinal. Following tradition, the patriarch entered …
PHOTOS: Christmas celebrations canceled in Bethlehem in the midst of war
By Marinella Bandini Jerusalem, Nov 26, 2023 / 06:00 am The strands of lights are falling down one after another, forming a kind of curtain of threads in front of the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Following the municipality’s decision to suspend Christmas events and remove decorations, workers are busy dismantling the …
Statement of U.S. Bishops’ International Justice and Peace Chairman on Continued Violence in the Holy Land
October 27, 2023 WASHINGTON – In response to the escalating Israel-Hamas war, Bishop David J. Malloy of Rockford, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on International Justice and Peace, renewed his call for peace. “The war in the Holy Land is playing out in real time …
U.S. pilgrims count their blessings, pray for peace after escaping Holy Land
By Jonah McKeown CNA Staff, Oct 19, 2023 / 12:30 pm Father Björn Lundberg was looking forward to his trip to Israel. A parish priest of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, Lundberg hadn’t set foot in the Holy Land since last going on pilgrimage there in 2009. After 14 years, he …
A Call for Prayer and Fasting for Peace
Dear brothers and sisters, may the Lord indeed give us His peace! The pain and dismay at what is happening is great. Once again we find ourselves in the midst of a political and military crisis. We have suddenly been catapulted into a sea of unprecedented violence. The hatred, which …
In the Holy Land, Franciscans are keeping doors to holy sites open — for now
By Marinella Bandini Jerusalem, Oct 11, 2023 / 11:25 am On Saturday, Oct. 7, Israel suddenly found itself in a state of war. A barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip and attacks by Hamas terrorists who infiltrated cities near the border resulted in the death of over 1,000 people. Among …
New discoveries may change what we know about Jerusalem’s Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher
By Marinella Bandini Jerusalem, Sep 17, 2023 / 07:00 am Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulcher, one of the holiest places in the world for Christians and an important pilgrimage site since the fourth century, is revealing more of its secrets. Ongoing archaeological investigations related to the restoration of the basilica’s …
