Holy Land Travel Center

Visiting Christians in the Holy Land

A pilgrimage to the the Holy Land is a primarily an encounter with the Christian faith. To this end, Catholic Travel Centre is committed to maximizing your encounter with the Christian community in the Holy Land. Naturally, our first commitment is to providing top, professional service to you and your group. And we are able to do this while at the same time, supporting the local Christian community.

LOCAL CHRISTIAN GUIDES

We make every possible effort to ensure that your guide will be a Christian. We feel that if we can secure a top-notch professional guide for your group and that guide is a Christian, your group’s experience will be all the richer.

VISIT A LOCAL PARISH

We recognize that the Christian community in the Holy Land is an integral part of keeping Christianity alive in the land of Christ’s birth and His ministry. For this reason, we often try to arrange a meeting with a local parish for liturgy and, if possible, to share a good, old-fashioned potluck meal with your fellow believers.

VISIT SCHOOLS, ORPHANAGES OR SEMINARIES

We have even arranged for groups to meet with local priests, bishops, schools, seminary, orphanages, peace groups and other members of the local community – depending on your group’s particular interest.

MEET WITH THE LEADER OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN JERUSALEM

We request for groups to meet with the Latin Patriarch, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in the Holy Land. A meeting with His Beatitude is an opportunity to meet and ask questions of the leader of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land. Meetings are always subject to His Beatitude’s schedule and a local bishop may need to substitute.

Bear in mind that the Christian population in Israel and West Bank is down to less than 2% – from a high of nearly 30% in the 1940’s. We must bear in mind the words on Pope Paul VI in his Apostolic Exhortation: Concerning the Increased Needs of the Church in the Holy Land.

“These brothers and sisters of ours, who live where Jesus lived and who, in the vicinity of the Holy Places, are the successors of the very first Church, which gave rise to all the other Churches:, enjoy precious merits in the sight of God and a high spiritual credit with all of us. In a unique way they share daily the suffering of Christ, and live up to their name as Christians by the testimony of a lively faith, open-hearted love and genuine poverty, in accordance with the spirit of the Gospel. Were there presence to cease, the Shrines would be without the warmth of this living witness, and the Christian Holy Places of Jerusalem and the Holy Land would become like museums.”