News Page 33

Sunday 25th of October at 5:00 PM, the Franciscan Church in Aleppo was hit during the evening Mass. Luckily, as Father Ibrahim explains in a letter he sent us: “The dome has held up and the bomb exploded in the outside damaging the outside part but never reached the inside”. No one died, but two […]

In an act of great generosity, the Commissariat of the Holy Land of Liguria has decided to support the Boys Home and the nursing home of the Antonian Society of Bethlehem in their activities to provide training and care. A reference point in the town of Bethlehem for youth and children in need, the Boys […]

From: custodia.org This month, the Library of the Custody of the Holy Land published a “virtual” exhibit on its official website entitled, “The ‘real’ balm of Jerusalem”. A total of 27 books from the fourteenth to the twentieth century have been made available online. They are thus able to be seen by an international audience, […]

On Friday 2 October, the new volunteers of the Association pro Terra Sancta, met for the first time with father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Custos of the Holy Land and president of the Association. The volunteers told him about themselves and about the job they are here for. There are six new volunteers: most of them have been […]

The people in Aleppo (Syria) have received consistent material aids during the last few months. Here the ongoing conflict is still particularly harsh. The 60-70% of the population is unemployed and can’t access food or medicines. The majority has no more hope, nor believes that something is really going to change. People don’t react anymore […]

Today – Thursday, September 17th 2015 – at the Vatican, the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum” held a meeting for all Catholic charities dealing with the Syrian crisis. In attendance was Tommaso Saltini, Director of Association pro Terra Sancta, and one of his collaborators Giacomo Gentile. The aim of the meeting was to assess the work […]

In Aleppo, a city particularly hard hit during the years of war, there are today only four functioning hospitals; approximately 50% of doctors have fled abroad, and dozens of health workers have been executed or tortured. In addition, most of the population in the area can no longer afford to pay for medical services. Thanks […]

Sixty-two: the number of days that Federica spent as a volunteer in Bethlehem between June and August. These two months run quickly and were full of activities, discoveries, encounters, people and experiences; Federica does not know where to start telling us  about her experience. “A few months ago I came to the Holy Land for […]

The nursing home of the Antonian Society of Bethlehem has finally received the long-awaited washing-machines. For a long time, sister Caterina and the staff at the nursing home used to find it extremely difficult to manage the laundry of the guests. In fact, the already old washing-machines, used to leak water and struggled to wash […]

When Claudia came to the Holy Land, she left home all prejudices and expectations: she wanted to be open to any surprise. And ‘surprise’ is one of the key words of the experience that three students, Claudia Sara and Viviana, lived in Bethlehem from 18 July to 8 August. They participated in the Charity Work Program, a […]

[From custodia.org]  While work is under way at the sites that will host the Terra Sancta Museum, the Custody’s archivist Br. Sergey Loktionov is preparing the archival documents that will be exhibited in the Museum – especially the firmans. Firmans are royal mandates or decrees issued by the Ottoman Empire. Their existence is paramount to trace […]

Saturday August 1st sister Immacolata has passed away. Superior of the sant’Antonio Gianelli sisters who serve the Antonian Charitable Society in Bethlehem, in the last few weeks she was severely suffering and the fight against her illness was every day harder. Sister Immacolata, of Jordan origins but for more than twenty years in Bethlehem, has […]

Fr. Ibrahin Alsabagh is Parish Priest in Aleppo. Born in Damascus, he completed his studies in Rome, after which he returned to Syria to be with his people. In a recent telephone conversation we asked him to tell us what it means to live out the faith in a place like Aleppo which is devastated […]

On Thursday 2 July the summer camp held at Catholic Action in Bethlehem came to an end. The camp was financed by the Italian Episcopal Conference, through its Committee for charitable activities in favor of third-world countries , as part of a project to support the weakest elements of society in Bethlehem: women, young people […]

In a communique published yesterday by the Custody of the Holy Land, the good news of the release of Fr. Dhiya Azziz: The Custody of the Holy Land announced that the Fr. Dhiya Azziz has been liberated. The Custody had had no news of the Fr. Dihya since Saturday, July 4, in the late afternoon. Conflicting news had […]