Every year the Catholic Action Associations around the world, especially the young people, provide support to promote the Good Friday Collection, collaborating with everyone at a diocesan and parish level.
We respond to the invitation of Paul VI in Nobis in animo (25 March 1974) ‘it is necessary that Christians all over the world give proof of their generosity, sending to the Church of Jerusalem the charity of their prayers, the warmth of their understanding and the concrete sign of their solidarity’.
Through this initiative, the Church invites Christians in the Holy Land to resist the temptation to emigrate, showing them how the faithful all over the world are conscious of their plight.
The IFCA secretariat has been promoting the Collection since 2014-15 in various countries, in collaboration with the Custody of the Holy Land Land and the Commissariats of the Holy Land present in Italy and on other continents. (OLD SITE)
The Good Friday universal collection is promoted at diocesan level, and concretely takes place mainly in parishes.
IN THE DIOCESE
The bishop receives the letter of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches at the beginning of each year. The diocesan AC informs the bishop of its availability to animate the collection in the parishes, with the commitment of the whole association to support this initiative animated by young people.
Each local reality has its own tradition and organisation: the Nobis in Animo provides for the offerings to be remitted by the parish priests and rectors of churches and oratories to their bishop, who will deliver them to the nearest commissioner of the Holy Land. It is therefore necessary to contact the nearest commissioner of the Holy Land and/or the director of the diocesan office in charge in order to have precise instructions on how to collect and deliver the offerings.
Above all, it is young people who are called upon to animate the collection: it is important to share this commitment with the whole of the AC and to involve the diocesan youth ministry and the council, the associations and movements with which one works at a diocesan and parish level (scouts, oratories, etc.).
IN THE PARISH
The parish president, taking a cue from the booklet, which is also available online, can take time for personal and associative preparation.
It is important that the attention to the Holy Land and this concrete commitment be the fruit of an educational journey: in the youth and very young groups, a meeting or part of a meeting can be dedicated – before or after Good Friday – to getting to know the Holy Land, the reality of the Christians who live there and the commitment of the CA with and for the Holy Land.
For Good Friday, everything is agreed with the parish priest:
- the announcement can be given either on the sheets prepared for Holy Week, or on Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday, as well as in the other moments that the parish community lives during Holy Week (confessions, retreats, etc.);
- On Good Friday, the Collect Pro Terra Santa is presented before the celebration; a card can also be prepared to be distributed at the entrance or exit of the Mass, telling the meaning and objectives of this commitment. If there is an AC parish newspaper, this commitment can also be presented there in the issue preceding Holy Week;
- the collection envelope is prepared to be handed in at diocesan level.
Official website (Italian)
