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 […]

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 […]