Cardinal Ignace Moussa I Daoud, prefect of the congregation, said today that Popes “have established that on Good Friday, while the whole Church contemplates the face of the suffering Christ, there must be a remembrance in prayer and a ‘charity collection’ to support the ‘living stones’ that continue to celebrate and live the Christian faith in the holy places.”

VATICAN CITY – The Congregation for Eastern Churches launched an appeal to Catholics worldwide to give financial support to Christians in the Holy Land.

Cardinal Ignace Moussa I Daoud, prefect of the congregation, said today that Popes “have established that on Good Friday, while the whole Church contemplates the face of the suffering Christ, there must be a remembrance in prayer and a ‘charity collection’ to support the ‘living stones’ that continue to celebrate and live the Christian faith in the holy places.”

“Every year, at the beginning of Lent,” he told Vatican Radio, “I address a letter to all the bishops of the Catholic Church and to the apostolic nuncios worldwide so that, with spiritual and material generosity, they draw near to their Catholic brothers and those that belong to other Christian Churches and communities

[of the Holy Land] who suffer gravely because of their fidelity to Christ and to the Church, and feel the temptation to leave their native land because of the lack of peace.”