2011-04-22 11:44:59

Where does the Good Friday Collection go?


Ever wonder what happens to the money you place in the church collection basket on Good Friday? Well, if you didn’t know already, you really should. The small donations we give every Good Friday traditionally go to the Franciscan friars in the Holy Land. Their work helps ensure the survival of Christians in the land where Christianity was born.

Pope Benedict has recalled how it was St. Paul who some 2000 years ago initiated the first collection for struggling Christians in Jerusalem.

"The collection” he said, “expressed the community's debt to the mother church of Palestine, from which they had received the ineffable gift of the Gospel."

In a land sorely troubled by conflict and hatred, Christians can be instruments of peace and offer solidarity with the poor – something the Franciscans have been doing since they started caring for the local Christian flock and maintaining the holy sites in the Holy Land in 1209.

With the Good Friday collection, they have been able to restore and build shrines, construct homes for underprivileged families and young couples, assist pilgrims and care for the elderly. They run summer camps and offer skills training to help young people find jobs.

Though the collection provides much needed financial support for these projects, the Custos of the Franciscan Custody, Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa says the task ahead can seem daunting. So, the Franciscans place a lot of attention on helping local Christians to help themselves.

While Fr. Pizzaballa says the Franciscans can’t be expected to respond to all the needs all the time, the Franciscans have made a major, long-standing commitment to education, offering some 300 scholarships alone. Thousands of Christian and Muslim children and young people attend their schools in the Holy Land. Tracey McClure recently visited one of them in Jerusalem and talked to the principle about how they are forming the peace-builders of tomorrow...
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