Said Franciscan custodian of Holy Land proposes a path for peace, without anger or fear

Fray Francesco Patton, outgoing Franciscan custodian, takes stock of his 9 years in office and proposes a way to achieve peace before the war in the region. He also comments that being a Christian in the holy places, being a minority, is a special vocation and mission.

Patton, 61, leaves the position entrusted to him in 2016 and which has now been appointed Fray Francesco Iielpo, confirmed as the new Custodian of Holy Land by Pope Leo XIV on June 24.

A path to peace before war

In an interview published on July 11 in the Holy Land Custody Websitethe Italian Franciscan explains that, before the war between Israel and Hamas “peace requires mutual acceptance between the two peoples faced for decades, and the overcoming of the ideological readings of history, geography and even the Bible.”

“It would be necessary to teach coexistence in schools, instead of an ideology that only generates fear, anger and resentment. Neither of the two peoples must leave, and both must be able to live in peace,” he added.

“If both were able to overcome the mutual closure, the next generations could finally grow in peace, without fear and without anger,” said the Franciscan priest.

Be a Christian

Patton also said that “I have always told local Christians, especially young people, to cultivate their identity as Christians of the Holy Land. They should not focus on ethnopolitical identities, but on a deeper identity: being custodians, with us, of holy places.”

“The holy places are an essential part of their identity. I have suggested to the parish priests who take young people there, who tell the Gospel in the places of the Gospel. Holy places belong to them,” the Franciscan continued.

In that sense, the Italian priest highlighted, “being a Christian in the Holy Land is a vocation and a mission. If God leaves you to be born here, he is calling you to be light and salt, precisely because you are a minority and the context is difficult. And Jesus reminds us that the salt that loses its flavor is useless.”

What has impressed you in these nine years in the Holy Land

“I was deeply moved by the fidelity of the two friars who remained in the Valley of the Orontes when ISIS and Al Qaeda were present. They stayed because they knew they were shepherds, and not salaried, using the words of Chapter 10 of San Juan. His availability to give life was not hypothetical, but concrete in a very risky context,” he recalled.

“I was also impressed by the importance of the holy places for Christians who can only visit them once in life. In Brazil, I saw people who saved some money every month for 10 or 15 years just to visit Nazareth, Belén and the Holy Sepulcher. Or to a Syrian Christian who visited the sepulcher and broke up crying with emotion.”

After highlighting the great value of schools in the Holy Land, the outgoing custodian said it affected it “negatively see the growth of intolerance, extremism and ideological manipulation of religion for political purposes. That made me, and it still makes me suffer.”

The holy places: antidote for religious rationalism

The Italian friar then stressed that the holy places, being something physical, “return faith to a concrete, existential environment. They are a great help to avoid a disenchanted and intellectualized Christianity. They are an antidote against religious rationalism and intellectualism.”

“And they also help us understand people’s religiosity. Intellectuals love to reason, but people love to touch. They love to kiss a stone, smell the perfume of the mugger, see the olive trees of Gethsemaní, the Grotto of Bethlehem, the Calvary and the empty tomb.”

“Popular religiosity,” he concluded, “is much closer to the mystery of the incarnation than that of professional theologians.”