Custos: Wish of Holy Land Christians is to start again and live in peace in land of ancestors

JERUSALEM (OSV News) -- Amid the turmoil of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, Father Francesco Patton, the custos of the Holy Land, has a unique perspective on the plight of Christians in the region.

As head of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land -- which has been entrusted with safeguarding the holy sites of Christianity for over 800 years -- Father Patton has been a steadfast advocate for peace and mutual respect among different religious and ethnic communities.

In the days following Christmas, OSV News sat down with the custos in the Franciscan Curia to discuss the complexities of life in the Holy Land during the war, and the devastating drama of Christians living in the Gaza Strip.

In the interview, Father Patton sheds light on the impact of the war, the situation local Christians face and the mission of the custody to preserve sacred shrines. Father Patton's reflections offer both a sobering account of current realities and a hopeful vision for reconciliation in the birthplace of Christianity.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

OSV News: This past Christmas marked the second year of a more subdued celebration in Bethlehem. Could you reflect on the experience this year?

Father Patton: Christmas this year, for the second year, was a Christmas in sobriety -- I can say so without too many lies. ... But it was, most of all, the second year without pilgrims. This affects the celebration of Christmas because, you know, on Christmas, Bethlehem is the capital of the world. For Christians living in Bethlehem, the presence of pilgrims is also a source of work, and so there was this sobriety in celebration.

But the liturgical celebration was very solemn. Despite the situation, a lot of local Christians attended the holy Mass. The patriarch celebrated the midnight Mass in the Church of St. Catherine, and there was celebrating in the grotto in front of the manger. Both places were overcrowded, and it was the same when I was there at the beginning of Advent.

And I will be there again for Epiphany, which is the most beautiful celebration in the Holy Land and in Bethlehem -- it has a very unique aspect. When we are finishing the celebration of Christmas, the Oriental churches are starting the celebration of Christmas. In the afternoon of Epiphany, all the churches -- Oriental and Western -- are gathered around the grotto where Jesus was born. This is very touching, something that has a great spiritual dimension because it means that the infant Jesus is able to unify the Christian world. But it also has an emotional aspect because you can hear prayers and songs in so many different languages.

OSV News: The ongoing absence of pilgrims has had a significant impact on the local Christian community and the Custody of the Holy Land. Could you elaborate on how this has affected the custody's ability to maintain holy sites, support local Christians and fulfill its mission?

Father Patton: The lack of pilgrims affects the local Christians because our main task is precisely to be the custodians of the holy places, and so we take care of about 80 holy places in some 50 different sanctuaries. When there are no pilgrims, of course, we continue to live and to pray in these sanctuaries, but we have no income. Pilgrims usually support us, and all the holy places are open for free. We don't charge admission -- except in Capernaum -- because it is a very important archaeological site. All the sanctuaries are open, and so we continue to have expenses for maintenance, water, electricity and so on.

Of course, we continue to pay the salaries of our employees because if we don't give them this opportunity, their families are left without any income. To continue, we try to find something for them to do and to support them, even temporarily. For the local Christians, for all those who are living around the holy places, the situation is very difficult. For those living in the West Bank, it is also difficult because, since 2023, it has not been easy to get permits to work in Israel. In Palestine, job opportunities are fewer, and the salaries are lower.

If we think about the Christians living in Gaza, it is a disaster on the material level. Gaza is totally destroyed. I saw the destruction in Aleppo after the war because I visited Aleppo many times -- and other cities in Syria ... but when I saw what happened in Gaza, I was astonished. What happened in Syria is nothing compared to the destruction in Gaza.

The patriarch recently visited Gaza to celebrate Christmas at Holy Family Parish, and he said that it is impossible to recognize places or even orient yourself because everything is destroyed. Despite the situation and the news of daily deaths in Gaza -- a lot of them children -- the small Christian community in Gaza, Catholic and Orthodox, continues to have strong faith. The miracle is that they continue to have hearts free from hatred, desire for revenge and bad feelings. They only want peace. They want the possibility to start again and live in peace in the land of their ancestors.

OSV News: Given the challenges facing Christians in the Holy Land, particularly in areas like Gaza and the West Bank, could you share the custody's current initiatives to support these communities? How are these projects addressing both material and spiritual needs?

Father Patton: Yes, we have many projects. For example, Catholic Relief Services through the Pontifical Mission Societies has many projects supporting the Christian presence. There is an entire network trying to support local Christians. Of course, we are the oldest presence because we have been here since the time of St. Francis, more than 800 years. But now, all the main Catholic institutions are trying to support the Christian presence. We try to support in many ways, for example, through house building.

We provide more than 400 apartments for local Christians in Jerusalem. In this way, we are able to preserve the Christian character of the Christian Quarter in the Old City. We provide more than 200 houses in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas. We also have a major project starting soon in Jaffa and a joint project with the agricultural sector to build an efficient compound near the wall that encloses Bethlehem. This is one way we provide job opportunities. We provide jobs for more or less 2,000 people, which is a great effort because it means every month we have to pay a lot of salaries.

For me, the most important social activity is our schools. We have 18 schools in the Holy Land. These schools are crucial because they provide not only cultural education but also human and religious education. We stress the importance of living together and the values of (papal encyclical) "Fratelli Tutti." Our Magnificat music school is a rare example of coexistence: Most of the teachers are Jewish and most of the students are Muslim and Christian. Through these efforts, we hope to foster a mentality of living together and counter the polarization fueled by politics and ideology.

OSV News: Since the events of October 7th, the region has experienced profound turmoil. Based on your extensive experience in the Holy Land, how does the current situation compare to past conflicts? What has been striking or unprecedented in this recent crisis?

Father Patton: The situation after October 7th was shocking for everybody, particularly for both Jewish and Palestinian people. It was like reliving, for the Jewish people, the experience of the Shoah and, for the Palestinian people, the experience of the Nakba. The hatred that spread after October 7th was so overwhelming. It broke relationships and created fear even in places where there had been coexistence. For us, coming from outside, it was shocking to see the lack of rationality in discerning what was right and wrong. It was very difficult to take a position because, whenever we did, we were misunderstood by one side, the other side, or both.

Despite this, I found two powerful examples of a different approach to the situation. One is the small Christian community in Gaza. Despite being under attack and bombarded like everyone else, they kept their hearts free from hatred and revenge. They lived a strong experience of community life, sustained by prayer with daily Mass, the rosary and adoration. The other example is an Israeli woman named Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son was a hostage. She emphasized the need for empathy and mutual understanding, saying, "All tears have the same weight." For me, this reflects a very Christian approach, as St. Paul says, "Suffer with those who suffer."("If (one) part suffers, all the parts suffer with it" -- 1 Corinthians).

OSV News: What message would you like to share with American Christians about the situation in the Holy Land? How can they better understand and support the local Christian communities, who are the descendants of the first followers of Christ?

Father Patton: I would like Americans to remember that this is the land where our faith began. The local Christians are the descendants of the first Christian community. Sometimes, when I visit the United States, I sense that American Christians may not fully recognize this connection, that they don’t recognize that Arab Christians were the first Christians. But we are all linked to the first Christian community. Local Christians here have endured centuries of challenges as a minority, paying through the centuries the high price of martyrdom for their faith. We Franciscans know very well because we have been here since 1217. We shared with the local Christians the difficulties; we shared the persecutions, and we also share them here in Syria and Lebanon. Read what St. Paul says: All Christians are indebted to the church in Jerusalem. This debt is one of faithbecause the Christian faith started here. The Son of God became incarnate and was born of the Virgin Mary in this land.