In a message promoting the annual Good Friday collection for the Church in the Holy Land, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, the prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, said that the papal trips of 2021 to Iraq, Cyprus, and Greece “testify to the desire for closeness” to the Christians of the region.

Cardinal Sandri observed that during the past two years, because of Covid-lockdown restrictions, “the Christians of the Holy Landn have celebrated Easter and Christmas in a sort of isolation.” The absence of pilgrims has brought economic suffering as well, he said.

The cardinal continued:

If, in personal terms, Christ has suffered and died only once and cannot die anymore, in his Body, which is the Church, He continues to suffer, especially in the Middle East, but also in every other place in the world where the freedom to live the faith is trampled and prevented.