Church leaders and parishioners in the Holy Land have appealed for Irish Catholics to come and follow in the footsteps of Jesus both to deepen faith and support the hard-pressed local Christian community.
Many Christian families, who rely on working with pilgrims, have lost their incomes since the beginning of the war triggered by the October 7, 2024, attack on Israel by Hamas.
Towns like Bethlehem, which used to welcome up to two million pilgrims every year, have been deserted.
However, Bishop William Shomali, auxiliary bishop of Jerusalem appealed for pilgrims to return, insisting that the holy places are safe to visit.
Speaking to Michael Kelly of the papal foundation Aid to the Church in Need – which is supporting local Christians in the Holy Land – Bishop Shomali said “I am happy to invite you to come to the Holy Land as pilgrims.
“Don’t be afraid, it is safe for all pilgrims to come to Bethlehem Jerusalem Nazareth, Capernaum and all the other holy places.
“It is safe for you, and it will also be an occasion to grow in faith when you will be in contact with the physical places where Jesus lived, taught, healed, suffered and died, and rose from the dead,” Bishop Shomali said.
Fr Francesco Ielpo OFM, the Franciscan friar with responsibility for the holy sites associated with the earthly life of Jesus in the Holy Land, echoed the bishop’s passionate appeal for Christians to return as pilgrims to the Holy Land.
Fr Ielpo, Custos of the Holy Land, said that “fear is not overcome with words; it is overcome with witness. Seeing Christians from all over the world come to the Holy Land to visit the holy places generates hope and strengthens the reason for coming here — not to see a museum, but to encounter a living Church”.
Fr Ielpo said the question he is asked most is, ‘what can we do to help this land and these peoples?’
After prayer, he said the most helpful thing would be to “return as pilgrims to this land.”
Pilgrimages are “one of the principal sources of economic support, primarily — but not only — for the local Christian community,” he explained.
Pilgrims generate hope, Fr Ielpo said, and this means “above all coming to see that, despite everything, we have not been abandoned.”
Bishop Shomali said, “when you come to visit the holy places, you will meet a vibrant Christian community who see in you brothers and sisters, and you see in them the same descendants of the first Christians 2,000 years ago who remained on the Holy Land as custodians of the holy places.
“We want you to come again to visit us, and to grow in faith,” he said.
Aid to the Church in Need has been supporting Christians in the Holy Land for many year, and this has intensified since the beginning of the war. Speaking from Bethlehem this week, Michael Kelly said that local Christians miss the presence of pilgrims.
“Of course, they rely on the pilgrims for their income – but more than that, Christians coming from all over the world helps deepen their faith.
“Christians in the Holy Land have been under pressure for a long time and now are fewer than 2% of the people here. The decline has been rapid, and they really need our support and our solidarity if they are to be able to stay here.
“We must help them stay, the Holy Land without Christians would be little more than a museum,” Mr Kelly said.
