Palm Sunday

“Give hope, sow peace”
the Good Friday Collection 2025
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Hope is the central message of Jubilee 2025, the living and personal encounter with the Lord. A concrete gesture of hope is represented by the Good Friday Collection, also known as the Colletta pro Locis Sanctis, one of the collections in aid of the places and needs of the Holy Land. To know more about how it works, and to give straight away, the site www.collettavenerdisanto.it is available where, alongside materials and guides, the reader can also find the text of the Via Crucis prepared by the Franciscan friars of the Custody of the Holy Land, with the meditations and testimonies of the “Living Stones” of the Holy Land.
Now more than ever, the suffering populations of the Holy Land, the few remaining Christians, the religious communities, young people and children, who are the future of those communities, but also the sick and the elderly, are in need of concrete and immediate help, even just to “maintain their positions”, thus mitigating the damage that continuous conflicts are causing to the daily life of the people.
The Collection, which takes place on Good Friday, this year on 18 April, the day that commemorates the Passion of the Lord, has its origins in Saint Paul VI’s Apostolic Exhortation Nobis in Animo, of March 1974. The Collection was established with the intention to strengthen the bond between Christians around the world and the Holy Places, and it is one of the official collections of the Catholic Church.
This collection represents the main resource for supporting the activities and life around the Holy Places. The donations gathered by the parish communities and the bishops are transferred, via the Commissioners of the Holy Land, to the Custody of the Holy Land. These funds are used to preserve the sacred sites and to support the local Christian communities, often defined as the “living stones” of this region.
The territories that receive support from the Collection include those where the Custody has been present for centuries: Jerusalem, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Cyprus, along with countries where the eastern Christian communities are present: Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq and Türkiye.  The Custody has 270 missionaries from over 30 nations. The friars take care of the Holy Places and welcome pilgrims 
The Christian communities have been left without employment and the entire economy linked to religious tourism. As a result, most families suffer from the economic crisis and struggle to pay school fees. Schools, however, remain the place where the friars build Peace every day.
The Good Friday Collection, together with pilgrimages, therefore represents the main source of funding. The Custos of the Holy Land, Brother Francesco Patton, writes: “Thanks to your generosity, we will be able to care for and make the Holy Places places of prayer and welcome for the faithful and pilgrims; respond to emergencies; support schools, clinics, dispensaries, homes for the elderly and for young families; and promote humanitarian works for migrants, displaced persons and refugees. Help us to Give Hope and Sow Peace!”.