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| Meeting Holy Land
Christians |
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| Visiting Christians in the
Holy Land |
| A pilgrimage to the the Holy
Land is a primarily an encounter with the Christian
faith. To this end, Catholic Travel Centre is committed
to maximizing your encounter with the Christian
community in the Holy Land.
Naturally, our first commitment is to providing
top, professional service to you and your group.
And we are able to do this while at the same
time, supporting the local Christian community.
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- LOCAL CHRISTIAN GUIDES
We make every possible effort to ensure that your guide will be a Christian.
We feel that if we can secure a top-notch professional guide for
your group and that guide is a Christian, your group’s experience
will be all the richer.
- VISIT A LOCAL PARISH
We recognize that the Christian community in the Holy Land is an integral
part of keeping Christianity alive in the land of Christ’s
birth and His ministry. For this reason, we often try to arrange
a meeting with a local parish for liturgy and, if possible, to share
a good, old-fashioned potluck meal with your fellow believers.
- VISIT SCHOOLS, ORPHANAGES
OR SEMINARIES
We have even arranged for groups to meet with local priests, bishops,
schools, seminary, orphanages, peace groups and other members of the
local community – depending on your group’s particular
interest.
- MEET WITH THE LEADER
OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN JERUSALEM
We request for groups to meet with the Latin Patriarch, the leader
of the Roman Catholic Church in the Holy Land. A meeting with His Beatitude
is an opportunity to meet and ask questions of the leader of the Catholic
Church in the Holy Land. Meetings are always subject to His Beatitude’s
schedule and a local bishop may need to substitute.
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| Bear in mind that the Christian
population in Israel and West Bank is down to less
than 2% – from a high of nearly 30% in the
1940’s. We must bear in mind the words on
Pope Paul VI in his Apostolic Exhortation: Concerning
the Increased Needs of the Church in the Holy Land. |
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“These brothers and sisters of ours,
who live where Jesus lived and who, in the
vicinity of the Holy Places, are the successors
of the very first Church, which gave rise
to all the other Churches:, enjoy precious
merits in the sight of God and a high spiritual
credit with all of us. In a unique way they
share daily the suffering of Christ, and
live up to their name as Christians by the
testimony of a lively faith, open-hearted
love and genuine poverty, in accordance with
the spirit of the Gospel. Were there presence
to cease, the Shrines would be without the
warmth of this living witness, and the Christian
Holy Places of Jerusalem and the Holy Land
would become like museums.”
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