St. Mary's Church

La Asamblea de Ordinarios Católicos de Tierra Santa (ACOHL), que incluye obispos, exarcas y eparcas de la región, han expresado su profunda alegría por el anuncio de un alto el fuego en Gaza, que busca poner fin a las hostilidades, liberar a rehenes israelíes y prisioneros palestinos.

El Secretario de Estado del Vaticano, Cardenal Pietro Parolin ha señalado que, frente a los conflictos abiertos en Ucrania, Tierra Santa y Birmania, el compromiso con la paz es el mayor desafío diplomático del Papa en la actualidad.

Este sábado, el Papa Francisco alentó a los miembros de la Fundación Católica de Verona (Italia) a seguir “haciendo siempre el bien y para todos” y recordó que, cuando el dinero se pone al servicio de la dignidad humana, lo único que se obtiene es ganancia verdadera.

Esta mañana, el Papa Francisco resaltó el valor de que los miembros de la Guardia Suiza, el cuerpo militar que ha resguardado al Pontífice desde el siglo XVI, se casen, formen una familia y tengan hijos, destacando la relevancia de la vida familiar en su servicio.

CNA Staff, Jan 18, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Catholic leaders in the Holy Land expressed cautious optimism this week that pilgrims will be able to return to the region amid a new ceasefire and hostage release agreement in Gaza, which is expected to go into effect on Sunday.

While welcoming the ceasefire as a crucial step to end violence and address urgent humanitarian needs, the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land (ACOHL), which includes bishops, exarchs, and eparchs from across the region, emphasized in a Jan. 16 statement that lasting peace requires addressing the root causes of the conflict.

“Genuine and lasting peace can only be achieved through a just solution that addresses the origin of this long-standing struggle. This requires a long process, a willingness to acknowledge each other’s suffering, and a focused education in trust that leads to overcoming fear of the other and the justification of violence as a political tool,” the Catholic leaders wrote.

The leaders said they “eagerly await” the return of pilgrims to the holy places in the Holy Land. Visitation to the Holy Land by foreign pilgrims, a vital part of the livelihoods of many of the region’s Christians, dropped sharply following the October 2023 start of the war.

“The holy places are meant to be places of prayer and peace, and we long for the day when pilgrims can visit them again in safety and spiritual joy,” the ordinaries said.

Several of the most significant sacred sites in the Holy Land, including the churches of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the Annunciation in Nazareth, and the Nativity in Bethlehem, have been designated as pilgrimage sites for the Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year, raising hopes that pilgrims may flock to them once again after more than a year of greatly diminished crowds.

“Despite the pain we have suffered, we continue to look to the future with unwavering hope. May this ceasefire inspire new efforts for dialogue, mutual understanding, and lasting peace for all. At the beginning of the jubilee year dedicated to hope that does not disappoint, we read in this event a sign that reminds us of God’s faithfulness.”

Late Friday, Israel’s full Cabinet approved the ceasefire and hostage release deal, which also includes provisions for a major influx of humanitarian aid and was brokered by the United States, Qatar, and Egypt. Under the first 42-day phase of the deal, Hamas forces are expected to release 33 women, children, elderly, and wounded Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian women and children.

Catholic tour operators eager to return to region

In the United States, Catholic pilgrimage leaders also expressed optimism, saying their partners on the ground in the Holy Land are hopeful that the ceasefire will hold and perhaps even end the war. 

Steve Ray, a Catholic convert and speaker who has visited the Holy Land more than 200 times and runs a pilgrimage service, told CNA that the service is planning its next Holy Land pilgrimage for March and hopes to have “time to get the message out” to prospective pilgrims.

Ray said many Christians on the ground in the Holy Land that he has heard from are optimistic about the ceasefire and eager to rebuild their livelihoods through a rebounding of visitation to the region.

However, Ray said the perception of continued danger is still keeping Americans away from Holy Land pilgrimages, despite what Ray described as a relatively safe security situation in Israel for tourists, even amid the fighting in Gaza. Ray said he hopes the ceasefire will hold and that prospective pilgrims will be inspired to give the Holy Land another look.

“People are going to want to wait and watch for a while,” he said. “Americans are going to want to know it’s safe.”

Milanka Lachman, founder of Tennessee-based 206 Tours, told CNA that she, too, perceives optimism from her partners in the Holy Land about the staying power of the current ceasefire.

206 Tours operates Catholic pilgrimages in 33 countries, with the Holy Land as its No. 1 destination, sending approximately 100 groups per year, Lachman said, but the COVID-19 pandemic followed by the current conflicts has “really crushed our partners and guides in the Holy Land.”

That said, “I believe that this is it … I believe that the war is over,” Lachman told CNA by email.

“Our plan now is to let several thousand pilgrims whose scheduled pilgrimages were affected over the past years as well as our priests and group leaders know that we plan to resume this summer with our regularly scheduled departures … and that we will take any group requests from November 2025 on,” she said.

While noting that she cannot guarantee anyone’s safety in the Holy Land — no one can — Lachman encouraged Catholics in the U.S. to consider a trip, in part as a way of supporting the region’s Christians.

“Let’s go back to the Holy Land, and God please make the Israel-Hamas peace deal last,” she concluded.

Father David Steffy, LC, an American priest who directs the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center, a famous refuge for pilgrims to the Holy Land, told CNA he is hopeful that the ceasefire “will encourage tour agencies to start organizing trips again.”

While usually welcoming large numbers of American pilgrims, Steffy said lately the center has had only a few pilgrim groups visiting, mainly from the Philippines, Korea, and other Far East countries. They recently welcomed a group of about 30 Americans, the largest such group in “the last several months.” Many major U.S. airlines still are not flying to the Holy Land, he noted.

He reiterated, as he did when speaking to CNA in October 2023, that the dearth of pilgrims has caused great suffering for the Christian community who work in the tourism industry, including employees of the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center.

“The strain on families and the local economy has been devastating, especially for the local Christian community,” Steffy told CNA.

“We are encouraging pilgrim groups to return and His Beatitude Cardinal [Pierbattista] Pizzaballa [the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem] often speaks about the role pilgrims play in helping the Holy Land recover and heal from the consequences of the war and hostilities of the past year. We expect that by September perhaps visiting groups of pilgrims will be about 60% of what would be normal.”

Terra Dei, a pilgrimage tour operator with 14 employees in the Holy Land since 2013, saw a precipitous drop in visitation after the start of the Gaza conflict, with at least 75 pilgrim groups canceling their reservations after October 2023 and 70 groups canceling for 2024.

José Manuel Gude, a business developer for Terra Dei based in Jerusalem, told CNA by email that the group has already received messages from “previous customers or from people willing to come” on pilgrimage about how the ceasefire might change the security situation. Similar to Ray, he said Israel itself, and the holy sites, were very secure even before the ceasefire, but foreign pilgrims — especially Catholics, he says — remain wary.

“Most [people] have the idea that a pilgrimage to the Holy Land now is dangerous and will not come until a ceasefire is signed,” Gude said.

“It is understandable because what they see in the news are images of the war and it may seem that the whole country is a battlefield, when in reality life in Israel goes on totally normal.”

Gude echoed Lachman by saying he hopes Catholics will view a Holy Land pilgrimage with a “sense of mission,” as a way of supporting the Christians in the region who depend so highly on pilgrim groups. 

“[It] is precisely now when their presence is [most] needed among the local Christian community, which takes care of the holy sites and employs in the religious tourism sector an important proportion of its population, especially in Bethlehem,” he said.

Este sábado 18 de enero comienza la Semana de Oración por la Unidad de los Cristianos, que este 2025 lleva por lema "¿Crees esto?", una cita del evangelio de San Juan (Jn, 11, 26).

Cada 18 de enero la Iglesia Católica celebra a Santa Margarita de Hungría, religiosa dominica a quien Pio XII llamó “mediadora de la tranquilidad y la paz”.

Los resultados de una encuesta histórica revelaron que “las diócesis, eparquías y comunidades religiosas de hombres” han reportado más de US$ 5.000 millones en pagos relacionados con acusaciones de abusos.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 17, 2025 / 19:00 pm (CNA).

The United States Supreme Court agreed to hear a case that will determine whether parents have a right to opt their children out of public school coursework that promotes homosexuality, transgenderism, and sexual content.

Catholic, Orthodox, and Muslim parents are suing the Montgomery County, Maryland, Board of Education over a policy that prohibits parents from opting their children out of coursework that promotes gender ideology to children as young as 3 or 4 years old.

Supreme Court justices will likely hear the religious freedom case this spring.

The parents, who are represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, have argued that the board’s refusal to allow opt-outs violates their First Amendment right to direct the religious upbringing of their children. The parents argue that the concepts promoted in the coursework conflict with their religious beliefs.

“The school board has pushed inappropriate gender indoctrination on our children instead of focusing on the fundamental areas of education that they need to thrive,” Grace Morrison, who serves on the board of the Kids First association, said in a statement.

“I pray the Supreme Court will stop this injustice, allow parents to raise their children according to their faith, and restore common sense in Maryland once again,” Morrison said.

One book called “Pride Puppy!” teaches preschool children the alphabet with a story about a homosexual pride parade, which introduces children to words like “drag queen,” “leather,” and “zipper.” It also introduces young children to Marsha B. Johnson — a drag queen, gay rights activist, and temporarily a prostitute.

The lawsuit was filed in May 2023.

The school district decided in October 2024 to remove “Pride Puppy!” and one other book from the school curriculum but kept them in libraries. Numerous other books that promote gender ideology still remain in the mandatory curriculum for all students. 

“Cramming down controversial gender ideology on 3-year-olds without their parents’ permission is an affront to our nation’s traditions, parental rights, and basic human decency,” Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, said in a statement.

“The court must make clear: Parents, not the state, should be the ones deciding how and when to introduce their children to sensitive issues about gender and sexuality,” Baxter added. 

The parents are not seeking to have the books banned from the school but rather are asking for the opportunity to opt their children out of the coursework.

A survey released by Becket earlier this week found that 77% of Americans believe parents should be able to opt their children out of public school coursework that promotes concepts of gender identity and sexuality that conflict with the religious beliefs of the parents. Only 23% of people disagreed with opt-outs.

Esta semana, las fuerzas de Israel y Hamás acordaron un alto el fuego que detendrá los combates en Gaza y facilitará un intercambio de rehenes. El acuerdo, que fue negociado por Estados Unidos, Qatar y Egipto después de 15 meses de guerra, se implementará el domingo