Latest News – Holy Land News

H.B. Card. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, began his pastoral visit to Jaffa-Nazareth, on Friday, April 19th, 2024, at St. John the Beloved church entrance, where he was welcomed by Fr. Nidal Qanzou’ah, parish priest of Jaffa-Nazareth, and Fr. Simaan Jarasieh, from the Greek Melkite Church, Fr. Gabriel Nadaf, priest of the Orthodox Church, Fr. Masoud Abu Hatom, of

The Franciscans opened their first school in the Middle East in 1598, in Bethlehem, in the Holy Land. Since then, many more schools have opened, providing educational and other opportunities for growth for the children and youth of the Holy Land. For many years I have been Director of the Schools of the Custody of the Holy Land. In

In the chaos of the Israel-Hamas war, where any movement can be fatal, even burying the dead is not guaranteed. Hundreds still lie under the rubble across the Gaza Strip, and transporting bodies to cemeteries is nearly impossible. This is compounded by the heartbreak of mass graves. The challenge is even greater for Christians, whose cemeteries are all in the

War in Gaza has become a “way of life,” according to a Franciscan priest in the Holy Land. On Tuesday, Israel sent tanks to parts of the northern Gaza Strip, while warplanes conducted strikes on Rafah in the south of the territory, killing and wounding several people, according two local officials.   The Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed over

The Holy Land has been at war for almost seven months. I use the verb to live, even though war means death, suffering and destruction. It is a way of life, or rather an obligation to live the evil of war that no one can get used to. We count more than 120 thousand dead and wounded in Gaza.

Father Massimo Fusarelli, leader of the worldwide Franciscan order, has appealed to his fellow Franciscans to stay put in the Holy Land despite rising tensions and threats to physical safety due to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas on the Gaza Strip. Speaking in an April 18 interview with the Franciscan-run Custodia magazine, Fusarelli said after a recent visit to the

On July 12 Iraqi president Abdul Latif Rashid repealed the decree recognizing the appointment of Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako as head of the Chaldean Catholic Church and which appointed him to the office of the waqf  the endowment which oversees all church property. The details of the events leading up to this action are exhaustively covered in this report by MEMRI. In

A new church complex has been built near the ancient city of Ur, in Iraq, in an effort to draw attention to the long history of the country's beleaguered Christian community.   The building of the church has been spearheaded by a Chaldean Catholic engineer who was inspired by the words of Pope Francis in an address to faith leaders

The UN relief agency for Palestinians says the threat of disease outbreaks in Gaza is growing as winter ends and temperatures rise. UNWRA says that cleaner living conditions are urgently needed in the enclave. As it stands, the Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 33,970, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry. Reports

The Israeli Defense Forces said its troops had killed ten militants during a sweep of the camp which began last Thursday. At least four Israeli soldiers were wounded. Violence in the West Bank has intensified since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, Israel has killed over 450 Palestinians across the West Bank and east