ACN Ireland invites Holy Land bishop to Knock to pray for peace

Aid to the Church in Need Ireland hosted its second National Pilgrimage to Knock Shrine on Saturday, May 16. This year’s very successful pilgrimage featured a special guest speaker from Jerusalem, Bishop William Shomali, who is the Auxiliary Bishop for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

The focus of this year’s pilgrimage was the Christian presence in the Holy Land and what the recent conflict has posed to the already beleaguered Christian community living in the region.  

It was the bishop’s first visit to Knock, and he was very moved to venerate Our Lady at the place where heaven touched earth, and she comforted the Irish people in difficult times.

In his speech at Knock highlighting the importance of the Christian presence in the Holy Land, Bishop Shomali told ACN’s benefactors:

“Despite the current crisis, the call of the Holy Land has not ceased. Christians around the world still long to walk where Jesus walked. And when pilgrims come – when they return, as we pray they soon will – they bring not only economic support but spiritual solidarity.

“Second, there is a vibrant Christian community. Today, we represent only 2% of the population of the Holy Land. Some speak of disappearance, but such a conclusion is too quick – and, in a sense, contrary to faith. 

“Third, there are good people on both sides who work for peace with small gestures. They are numerous – Palestinians and Israelis who risk their security and their reputation to build bridges. In both camps, there are those who sincerely desire peace. They may not make the headlines, but they are the salt of the earth,” he said.

Asked about the huge numbers of Christians who are migrating from the Holy Land to flee the conflict, the bishop says he is trying to do everything to help them have a viable future there. “Christians have a vocation to remain in the Holy Land and to be a factor of peace and reconciliation.

“Living in the Holy Land is not an accident. It is a calling. To be here, where Christ lived, is to be called to witness to the Gospel in the very place where it took flesh.

“The temptations to leave are real. Emigration has drained more than one and a half million Palestinian Christians into the diaspora, and few will return. Many young people consider leaving, lacking prospects.

“This haemorrhage weakens the Christian presence and poses an existential question: who will remain to bear witness?

“But the answer must be: we will remain. Because our presence is not a political statement – it is an act of faith. It says that God has not abandoned this land,” he said.

While in Ireland, Bishop Shomali was also able to celebrate Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral, Dublin and go to the Dáil, where he met with John Lahart, TD, Chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs. That same day he visited the Dáil, he went to Iveagh House to meet with Minister for Foreign Affairs, Helen McEntee, TD.

Bishop Shomali said: “We must name what is happening clearly. There is a war of disinformation, hatred, and violence.

“On one side, Hamas – a terrorist organisation that does not speak for all Palestinians but that has sown destruction and used human suffering as a political tool. Their attack on October 7 was not resistance; it was atrocity. When Hamas teaches that death in battle is immediate martyrdom and entrance to paradise, they encourage violence even unto death.

“On the other side, extremist settlers – not all settlers, but a violent fringe – who attack Palestinian villages, destroy olive trees that have belonged to families for generations, and speak of Palestinians as obstacles to be removed rather than neighbours to be loved.

“Both sides have their extremists. Both sides have their propaganda. Both sides have learned to dehumanise the other,” Bishop Shomali said.

As he left Ireland, Bishop Shomali appealed for prayers for peace and thanked the benefactors of ACN for their huge generosity to the Christians of the Holy Land.

“The way of the cross teaches us that redemption comes through sacrifice. The sacrifice demanded today is not of blood, but of pride – of historical narratives, of the idolatry of land and security at the expense of the commandment to love our neighbour.

“God weeps in the Holy Land. But God also waits. He waits for us to weep with Him. He waits for us to act with Him. He waits for us to become, like His Son, instruments of peace,” he said.

The bishop was clear: “Prayer is essential. To pray is to engage in the spiritual battle against hatred and despair. We pray for wisdom to illuminate political leaders.

“We pray for divine intervention to soften hardened hearts, to open eyes blinded by ideology, to create opportunities for dialogue where none seem to exist. We pray for the victims, the traumatised, the bereaved, the hostages.

“And we pray for the peacemakers on the ground – Israeli and Palestinian – who risk their safety and their reputation to build bridges. They are numerous. May God protect them and multiply their efforts,” he said.