Currently, pilgrimage trips to the Holy Land have practically stopped due to the spread of the coronavirus. However, sooner or later the pandemic will end, and believers will be able to visit Jerusalem and other cities of Israel again. Obviously, the order of visiting holy places will no longer be the same. The Vatican News correspondent spoke with the Commissioner General - the representative of the Custody of the Holy Land, Franciscan Hieromonk Sergio Galdi D'Aragona about exactly what changes should be expected.
According to him, the number of people from pilgrimage groups will obviously change - there will be fewer of them. “We will need to rethink the spaces within the holy places in a new way. Our basilicas and sanctuaries are quite extensive, and this will allow them to accommodate groups of up to seventy people, ”said the representative of the Custody. He also recalled that until recently Nazareth, Gethsemane and Mount Tabor could not cope with the influx of people who wanted to offer prayer at the shrines. Obviously, in the future, the frequency of visits to holy places by pilgrim groups will decrease so that they cannot intersect with each other.
Certain difficulties, according to the Franciscan hieromonk, will arise with the resumption of intensive air traffic between Israel and other countries: it is not easy to maintain the necessary level of security in the face of an increase in the number of flights. Representatives of Christian denominations at The Holy Land will need arguments and patience for dialogue with the country's authorities. “Jerusalem is the heart of Christianity and a holy city for other monotheistic religions; the gaze of all believers in the world is turned to Jerusalem. Therefore, we - the Custody of the Holy Land - will do everything so that everyone can make the pilgrimage of their lives, ”said the Commissioner General.
Changes in the situation around the visit by pilgrims to Christian shrines located in Israel will be gradual: there is nowhere to expect magical salvation in this sense. If last year 630,000 Christian pilgrims visited the country, this year a disproportionately smaller number of people managed to do so. “This year we had everything booked until Christmas, but the virus canceled all plans. Now all that remains is to invent new ways, ”says Fra Sergio Galdi D'Aragona.
