Given the confinement measures adopted by numerous countries, to fight the COVID-19 coronavirus, the Pro Terra Sancta [For the Holy Land] Collection, held traditionally on Good Friday, has been postponed until September 13, 2020.
While numerous Christians prepare to live Holy Week confined — the Pope himself will celebrate the Paschal Triduum without faithful. The Congregation for the Oriental Churches explained the choice of date for the Collection on the eve of the glorious Cross (September 14). In fact, this feast commemorates the discovery of the relic of Christ’s Cross by Saint Helena and the beginning of its public worship at Jerusalem, with the building of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre.
This day “will be a sign of hope and of regained health after the Passion to which people were associated as well as the of solidary closeness to those that continue to live Jesus’ Gospel on the Land where it “all began.”
The annual Collection enables the world’s faithful to support the Christian communities in the Holy Land, so that they can “continue their evangelical presence, besides keeping the schools and assistance structures open to all citizens for human education, peaceful coexistence and especially the care of the littlest and the poorest.” Communities that are already tested and exposed at present to the risk of the pandemic, stresses the note.
