Pope Leo XIV sends Cardinal Gugerotti to the Holy Land as Christian numbers fall

Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, the Vatican office responsible for the Eastern Catholic Churches, will travel to the Holy Land from November 16 to 21 on behalf of Pope Leo XIV. He will bring the support of the pope and of the universal Church to the Catholic communities of the region. The trip comes during armed conflict and a continued decline in the Christian population. His private secretary, Father Emanuel Sabadakh, and a dicastery official, Nicola Agnoli, will travel with him.

The dicastery said in a statement that the cardinal will go as a pilgrim to the Holy Places to bring "the expression of the Holy Father's closeness and the sign of his blessing to the bishops, to their clergy and to the faithful who keep the Christian faith alive in a context marked by grave difficulties."

Christian numbers in Israel and the Palestinian territories

The figures released with the announcement set out the size of the communities. In Israel, Christians holding Israeli citizenship number around 185,000, or 1.9 percent of the total population. About 140,000 of them are Catholics. Most belong to the Greek Melkite Church, with close to 120,000 faithful; the Latin Church has around 15,000; the rest are divided among the Maronite, Armenian, Syriac and Chaldean communities.

The numbers in the Palestinian territories are smaller. In the West Bank, with a population of around 3.5 million, there are 45,000 Catholics, predominantly of the Latin rite. In the Gaza Strip the whole Christian community comes to no more than 500 people, 0.05 percent of Gaza's population, and Latin Catholics are a minority within it, alongside a Greek Orthodox majority. The statement said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has intensified an existing trend of forced emigration among the faithful.

Schools, clinics and charitable works

The dicastery said the Christian communities continue to play a leading social role in the region despite the sharp fall in numbers over recent decades. Their work includes numerous schools, health care centers of various kinds and charitable works aimed at the most vulnerable groups of the population. In the present circumstances, the statement said, that courageous presence and witness of faith need to be sustained "by signs of affection, by constant prayer and by the active charity of the whole Catholic Church."

The statement recalled that Leo XIV has made repeated appeals for peace since the start of his pontificate, with the Holy Land a constant concern. In an audience with participants in the Jubilee of the Eastern Churches, the pope asked that Christians in the Middle East "be given the possibility, and not only in words, of remaining in their own lands with all the rights needed for a secure existence."

Ecumenical and educational meetings

Gugerotti will meet bishops, priests, religious and faithful of all the rites present in the area, Latin, Greek Melkite, Maronite, Armenian, Syriac and Chaldean, in the main centers of Christian presence in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Galilee. The trip gives special attention to the most vulnerable communities. In the West Bank he will meet the faithful of Ain Arik and support the youth ministry center there. For Gaza, he will speak remotely with the pastor of the Holy Family parish.

The program also includes visits to educational institutions, among them Bethlehem University, the Effatà Pontifical Institute and several Christian schools. Gugerotti will also meet the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Theophilos III, and the Patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Jerusalem, His Beatitude Nourhan Manougian. The meetings are intended to strengthen bonds of unity among Christians, which the dicastery called "even more indispensable" in the Holy Land.

The visit will close with Masses at the main Holy Places, including solemn entrances into the basilicas of the Holy Sepulchre, the Nativity and the Annunciation. Clergy and faithful will join in prayer for peace for the communities of the region.