On the 6th of February a Papal Delegation has arrived in the Holy Land for the twenty-fourth World Day of the Sick which will take place in Nazareth on Thursday, 11 February. The Delegation is led by Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski President of the Pontificial Council for Health Care Workers. The theme chosen – Entrusting Oneself to […]

In Jordan, the Association pro Terra Sancta cooperates with the Franciscan Friars in Amman, the Latin parishes and other organizations to alleviate the humanitarian crisis of refugees fleeing from conflicted areas. They come from Syria, Iraq or Egypt. Mostly there are families of asylum seekers who have nothing, but a last shred of hope with […]

Monday 4 June in Jericho, at the local library, an Italian course for local youths began. The initiative arose from a request of Osama Hamdam, Director of the Mosaic Centre Jericho. According to the architect, who is also a professor at the University of Jerusalem and in charge of Preservation and Development projects for Association […]

The “Annual Report 2016” is now online. Thanks to the support of many donors and the voluntary contribution of so many skilled experts, in recent years, the Association pro Terra Sancta has grown considerably.

Jamila lives in the center of the old city of Bethlehem. She has to perch the ladder that leads to a sunny courtyard to reach her home. Her house is poor, but dignified. She has six children, among them five daughters. They are all married, only her 30-year-old son still lives with her. To this […]

(from custodia.org) On January 5, the Custos, Br. Pierbattista Pizzaballa and the secretary of the Custody, Br. Sergio Galdi, left St. Catherine’s Church after vespers. The program included visits to the Bethlehem communities who work with the Franciscans. They were accompanied by the main actors in this collaboration, Brs. Nerwan Al-Banna, Badie Elias and Luai […]

With the start of 2016 we are very happy to report a news published yesterday on the official website of the Custody of the Holy Land: Father Dhiya Azziz who had been kidnapped on 23 December, has finally been released. Meanwhile the humanitarian crisis in the country is getting worse; so there is an increasing call for […]

All the Christian Schools in Bethlehem  have had great Christmas celebrations. On the 22nd of December also at the kindergarten of the Aida refugee Camp the children and their families, both Muslims and Christians, celebrated all toghether despite the clashes and the tensions of these last months. The children prepared a play in which they […]

[From Custodia.org] As from the morning of 23 December, we have lost all contact with Father Dhiya Azziz ofm, parish priest of Yacoubieh (Syria). Father Dhiya was travelling with a taxi car. There were other passengers with him. He departed from Lattakia early in the morning and was heading for Yacoubieh, most probably passing through […]

Hani Kreitem, 31, comes from Beit-Hanina, Jerusalem. He is a teacher at the Magnificat Music Institute of the Custody of the Holy Land, since 2007. This year he also became the director of the choir of the Custody which takes part in all the Liturgical events in the Holy places. The Christmas Eve Mass in […]

The Jubilee of Mercy declared by Pope Francis has at last reached Syria. At the opening ceremony of the Holy Year all Oriental Bishops where present at St. Francis parish in Aleppo, toghether with hundreds of faithful. “All crammed into the Church, filled to capacity”  as the Franciscan Friars of Aleppo, Father Ibrahim and Father […]

In Nazareth the Church of the Annunciation is in need of restoration and maintenance works: and Association pro Terra Sancta, through its project, is seeking to respond to this need. We went there to find Fra Bruno Varriano, the Father Guardian, who not only explained to us the urgency of the works in progress, but […]

Little Hania* is 10 years old and is in fifth grade at the Franciscan school in Bethlehem. It is a girls’ school that welcomes everyone, both Christian and Muslim girls, with special attention to those most in need. Hania is one of these children. School is going very well, as she is a very intelligent […]

In the ongoing dramatic situation of Aleppo and of the whole Syria, health emergency level is still high. Thanks to the support of many small donors and some Institutional donors, such as the Misereor Foundation (Germany), the Association pro Terra Sancta has been able to coordinate the arrival of new medical equipment and machinery for […]

A few days ago the staff of Association pro Terra Sancta visited the Pilgrims Residence in Bethlehem, a hotel near the Milk Grotto, which this year decided to help with a very useful donation: wool blankets! The volunteers of the Association loaded all the blankets on a van so that they could be distributed immediately. […]

“The family – The world’s generating force”, Pope Francis said. A phrase that would seem to become flesh every day in Bethlehem, the place in which the Holy Family was formed. For this reason we dedicate our Christmas campaign to the poorest families in Bethlehem. Among the school students with whom we are acquainted is […]

Sister Lisi and Sister Caterina, of the Congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Garden, are living at the Antonian Charitable Society, a home for the elderly of Bethlehem that welcomes poor women and men, who are alone or suffering from serious mental and physical problems. Sister Catherine is in charge of the […]

Nisf Jbeil is a small village, 300 souls and a few donkeys, located in the hills of Samaria a few kilometers from Sabastiya. Here for the past few months the local community has been in a state of high activity: with little money but lots of good will. A decision was taken: capitalize on the […]

With the beginning of the school year, the School Support program of the Terra Sancta College in Bethlehem has started once more. The program was created to help students who either are struggling to study on their own, or don’t have good results in school. These boys live in a very difficult environment, from a […]

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 […]