As we come to the end of 2023, we want to share with all of you who follow our news from the Terra Santa, through our websites and mainly through the 50 TV channels around the world, some of the year's major News. TSN is produced in ten languages and aired on 50 TV channels: in America, South America, Europe and the Middle East. From January to December 2023 we covered: celebrations at shrines, archaeology, current news, culture, events, pilgrims, ecumenism, interreligious dialogue and faith and so on. In 2023 we followed the liturgical calendar in order to actualize the richness of celebrations in the places where Salvation events took place. Of particular importance among the Custody's activities is the educational and formative one that reaches out to the local population and to lay and religious people from all over the world. With regular news, we have told about the various events in the Holy Land. We also followed the various archaeological initiatives. In our "Good Friday Collection" specials, the connection between all Christians around the world and the Holy Places. In the gaze of the Custos of the Holy Land, the faces of the friars in Syria. In the words of Brother Francesco Patton, the experience of meeting with the friars in that area who welcome people affected by the earthquake. Cyprus, the island of Barnabas, Paul, Lazarus and an important sea route of early Christian voyages, still continues to host major events. After the visit of Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 and Pope Francis in 2021, it was the site of the "Rooted in Hope" symposium from April 20-23, 10 years after the publication of the post-synodal apostolic exhortation "Ecclesia in the Middle East." The 12th Latin American Congress of Commissioners of the Holy Land was held in São Paulo, Brazil. The Congress was attended by 21 Franciscans from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Bolivia, Chile, Honduras, Colombia, Guatemala, Spain and Paraguay. From Jerusalem to Rome with the gaze of Peter. On Sept. 30, 2023, on the Parvis of St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis celebrated the Ordinary Public Consistory for the creation of 21 new Cardinals. Among the Cardinals created were H.B. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and H.Em. Claudio Gugerotti, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches. Franciscan Marches in Lebanon, Syria, Galilee and Jordan. "Impact." This is the title of the Lebanese edition of the Franciscan march held at the end of August. Sixty-five Lebanese young people set out and for just four days left everything behind to enter into dialogue with the Lord. 125 young people left their daily lives behind to seek the Lord Jesus during the Ninth Franciscan March held in Syria from Sept. 5-11. On the paths of Galilee in search of God, between the plains and the mountains, the hustle and bustle and the good things of life recede, and in nature the voice of the Lord is heard. The hearts of the young people participating in the Franciscan march burned and their eyes were opened to the path of truth and justice. "Today with me in Paradise" is the theme chosen for the ninth Franciscan march held in Jordan. It was a unique human, physical and spiritual experience lived by about one hundred young people from different Jordanian cities and villages. Among them were also some Iraqi immigrants. October 7, 2023 will be a hard day to forget in the Middle East. This is the starting date of a new war that has claimed the lives of thousands of innocent civilians. Church action in the Holy Land has been immediate with numerous initiatives for peace. The leaders of the Holy Land Churches present in Jerusalem, together with many faithful of different rites and denominations, celebrated a vigil for peace at the Holy Land High School, in which they prayed, meditated and invoked peace. Praying the Stations of the Cross in Jerusalem is an experience that immerses us in the mystery of Christ. During the Stations of the Cross last Oct. 27, in communion with Pope Francis and the universal Church, they implored from God the gift of peace for the Holy Land. HE Mgr ADOLFO TITO YLLANA Apostolic delegate for Jerusalem All Christians in the world are praying, those who are believers, those who are Christians and also non-Christians. Because this right here is the center of our hope. Because the way of the cross leads to new life, to resurrection, to hope. However, I think that in these moments, the ones that are left to us, the most important thing, is only one word: prayer. Because prayer brings us to our soul, we put ourselves in the hands of God who never abandons us, never abandons his children. The children and young people of the Holy Land also called for peace. The meeting was held at the Holy Land High School in Jerusalem, an educational institute of the Custody of the Holy Land. The school hosts hundreds of students, offering them an all-round education to prepare them above all to face the most important challenge: building Peace in a Land that is filled with conflict. Br FRANCESCO PATTON, ofm Custos of the Holy Land We have been trying to bring the spirit of St. Francis and the evangelical spirit of peace here in the Holy Land for centuries. The way we try to educate for peace is first of all to educate for mutual acceptance, for coexistence. In our schools generally Christians and Muslims live together. In the Magnificat music school, Christians, Jews and Muslims. What we try a little bit to put into practice, if we want to put it in more current terms, is the spirit of Pope Francis' encyclical "Brothers All": trying to cultivate friendship between children and young people who are also of different religions, even of different ethnicity but who need to learn first of all to recognize each other. Br IBRAHIM FALTAS, ofm Vicar Custody Holy Land Every day we say the simple prayer of St. Francis, but today we said a prayer for peace. As you saw everyone participated, children from 3 up to 18 years old. Everyone against war, violence, hatred...everyone said no more war! No more violence! No more blood! We want to live like children...we don't want this war. And we really hope that the Lord hears us. This is about all the children of the Holy Land, children from Gaza, from Jenin from Nablus, from Tel Aviv...because right now all children are suffering a lot. "Stop the war" is the constant appeal of Pope Francis, who is in constant contact with the Holy Land. Fr GABRIEL ROMANELLI Gaza's Latin priest Among all the dramatic things that we are experiencing these days, we had a consolation, a comfort from the Holy Father. He called me yesterday, and also the day before yesterday, to ask me how the situation was but also to know about the parish community in Gaza. He expressed his closeness, concern. I thanked him for his appeal that all war should cease and that there should be peace...waiting for peace to come soon. He wanted to express his closeness. And yesterday, after sending his greetings and prayer he called Father Youssef, the sisters and the community who are refugees in the parish and gave them a blessing. Truly a comfort! We know that the Holy Father's prayer represents the prayer of the whole Church. May his blessing heal all the wounds of this land. More than 3 months have passed: great suffering, destruction, fear. We have reached Christmas: but this year it was celebrated of a different form. Beyond the wall, the beginning of Advent in Bethlehem. Br FRANCESCO PATTON, ofm Custos of the Holy Land We make a very important gesture of going from Jerusalem to Bethlehem by crossing a wall. For me this is the most important gesture. The crossing of the wall that we do when there are entrances is to continue to say that even a wall is crossable. We are not yet like the risen Jesus who went through the walls of houses, but it is a sign that sooner or later there will be no more walls. The Custos of the Holy Land had a less solemn entrance than usual this year, nevertheless, the presence of the children from the Terra Santa School, made his entrance equally festive and full of joy. Bethlehem is the city where the Word of God entered human history. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son so that the wall of enmity that separates men might be broken down. A sign of Christ's love that does not stop at the hardness of man is the entrance of the Patriarch of Jerusalem of the Latins, H.B. Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, right in Bethlehem on the morning of Dec. 24, 2023. HANNA HANANIA NASSER Mayor of Bethlehem "We decided to preserve the spirit of Christmas and protect the status quo. We will receive the patriarch and pray by celebrating midnight mass in the church. As Christians we consider ourselves an essential part of the Palestinian people. Jesus Christ was born in this city. This message, this noble message, must be spread all over the world, and the international community has a duty to bring it back to Bethlehem, now that Bethlehem and all of Palestine needs peace." H B Card PIERBATTISTA PIZZABALLA Patriarch of Jerusalem of the Latins "Right now, with this war going on where, beyond military and political issues, there is a deep-seated, deep-rooted hatred in the populations that drives people further and further away. And that certainly is a sign of sin, a work of the devil, with the consent of man. Because the other thing that needs to be said is that things can change, God can come into the life of the world, He can change life in the world, but He waits for our free yes. Without our free yes, God cannot enter the world. Jesus entered the world with Mary of Joseph's yes, and that changed the world." To manifest his closeness and love for this land and its inhabitants, Pope Francis sent the Apostolic Almoner, Card. Konrad Krajewski. Card KONRAD KRAJEWSKI Almoner of His Holiness "He sent me here especially to pray, to be silent and pray. I have been doing this for a few days, also visiting orphaned children, poor families, especially from Jerusalem, from Bethlehem. Yesterday, after the whole day of rehearsals, I was also able to talk to the deputy priest of Gaza and other people just to listen to them, to be able to then pass all this news that is not good but full of hope to the Holy Father." On this Christmas 2023, the Patriarch of Jerusalem of the Latins, Card. Pierbattista Pizzaballa presided over the Midnight Mass in St. Catherine's Church at the Grotto of the Nativity. The celebration ended with the procession of the baby Jesus to the place where according to tradition the Virgin Mary gave him to the Light. A God who by becoming a son made Himself and us brothers and sisters. H B Card PIERBATTISTA PIZZABALLA Patriarch of Jerusalem of the Latins "We are here today to say yes to God, because the great violence in the world is not only social issues, but it is also a lack of God in the life of the world. So yes to God, but saying yes to God also means recognizing the other brother." In the words of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the suffering, the drama that the parishioners of Gaza are experiencing, touches his heart and everyone's in a very deep way. H B Card PIERBATTISTA PIZZABALLA Patriarch of Jerusalem of the Latins "When there is someone suffering from your family you are always affected. And with the people in Gaza, even more so. I feel it more because I know them all, one by one. I have been in their homes that are now gone. I know their faces, I have baptized some of their children. So their suffering, the drama that they are going through, touches in a very deep way not only my heart, but also the hearts of so many people. One would like to do more, one would like to be there with them, but right now we cannot." Read More