After 10 years of systematic work, the Old City of Jerusalem is more accessible to the disabled and the elderly.
![](https://thetablet.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/JERSUALEM-VIADOLOROSA-ACCESSIBLE-1716109-140x106.jpg)
After 10 years of systematic work, the Old City of Jerusalem is more accessible to the disabled and the elderly.
With pandemic restrictions almost fully lifted, churches and shopkeepers alike are hopeful that the streets of Jerusalem will fill up once again as Easter, Passover and Ramadan converge.
In an economy hit hard by the pandemic and the lack of pilgrimages and other tourism for two years, Christians in the Holy Land “are in desperate need of support,” said an April 5 news release about the 2022 Good Friday Collection that continues to support the work of the Franciscans of the Holy Land.
Bethlehem, the biblical birthplace of Jesus, continues to feel the economic impact of the pandemic since essentially shutting down on March 5, 2020. After a quiet Christmas season that featured toned-down Mass celebrations and empty streets and shops, the city hopes things will turn around by next year.
In the name of Pope Francis, the Congregation for Eastern Churches said it is sending 10 ventilators to Syria and three to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Jerusalem to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
Amid continuing concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, Catholic pilgrims in the Holy Land said they were being cautious but had no regrets about continuing with their pilgrimage.
In 1867, American humorist Mark Twain traveled to the Holy Land on a memorable voyage that deepened his appreciation for the Bible, yet left him with cynical views on the sites he visited along the way.
Dialogue and encounter have been two of the popular buzzwords of the Francis papacy, but for one of the pontiff’s major interreligious interlocutors, they are more than mere maxims, they are a way of life.
A retired patriarch of Jerusalem called on both Israel and Palestine to “leave war.” He urged Israel specifically to move towards peace with the Palestinians, saying that the Palestinians wanted peace as well.
As the world witnesses “another outburst of hatred and violence, which is once again bleeding all over the Holy Land,” the head of Jerusalem’s Latin Patriarchate called for prayers for peace.