M
Matt25
Guest
asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=5038
Of all the holy places, I was especially struck by my visit to Bethlehem in the period nearing Christmas. I met a Christian community which is truly alive there. Participation in the mass in Bethlehem was very warm and so beautiful. People were all united and taking part, every detail of the liturgy was seen to. The great witness of the Franciscan fathers can be taken in here: all the Franciscan sites are looked after, perfect, in order and clean… one cannot say the same about other holy sites tended to by other Christian communities.
Another beautiful experience was a visit to the children’s hospital in Bethlehem. We found children aged between two and five weeks who had been abandoned because their parents had fled or been killed in the war. The sisters take care of all of them with great love.
But going to Bethlehem is also a journey into suffering. The wounds of the Israeli-Palestinian problem are starkly visible on arrival: the wall which surrounds and suffocates the city is indescribably sad. Bethlehem is a sort of prison: only a handful of people are in sight, people asking for handouts, begging because they are hungry… Everything speaks of neglect and of misery: half-finished buildings, rubbish on the sides of the streets, insecurity, tension, anxiety among the people… All Christians should help the people living in Bethlehem, otherwise they will leave and this holy place will lose its Christian community.
Of all the holy places, I was especially struck by my visit to Bethlehem in the period nearing Christmas. I met a Christian community which is truly alive there. Participation in the mass in Bethlehem was very warm and so beautiful. People were all united and taking part, every detail of the liturgy was seen to. The great witness of the Franciscan fathers can be taken in here: all the Franciscan sites are looked after, perfect, in order and clean… one cannot say the same about other holy sites tended to by other Christian communities.
Another beautiful experience was a visit to the children’s hospital in Bethlehem. We found children aged between two and five weeks who had been abandoned because their parents had fled or been killed in the war. The sisters take care of all of them with great love.
But going to Bethlehem is also a journey into suffering. The wounds of the Israeli-Palestinian problem are starkly visible on arrival: the wall which surrounds and suffocates the city is indescribably sad. Bethlehem is a sort of prison: only a handful of people are in sight, people asking for handouts, begging because they are hungry… Everything speaks of neglect and of misery: half-finished buildings, rubbish on the sides of the streets, insecurity, tension, anxiety among the people… All Christians should help the people living in Bethlehem, otherwise they will leave and this holy place will lose its Christian community.