The Council Letter

Dear Brothers & Sisters,

I hope this letter finds you well, with this letter I shall present to you with a short presentation of our mission as Franciscan Brothers of Saint Francis of Assisi at the Parish of St. Catherine at the Shrine of the Nativity of our Lord. St. Catherine’s Parish of Bethlehem has 1,570 Christian Palestinian families and among the manifold activities carried on today at this Parish are to be enumerated such as: the Third Order of St. Francis, Legio Mariae, the Pious Union of Christian Mothers, the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Antonian Charitable Society, Terra Sancta Boy Scouts, St. Joseph Girl Scouts, and the Catholic Action Club for the activities of the Parish etc The lock down of Bethlehem area due to the Covid 19 started on March 5 th . 2020. The majority of the parish members stopped working and as a result many of them were able to get half salary and lots were left unemployed. For that the freshly elected Parish Council is working alongside to assist the church’s priest in this emergency to fulfil the needs of the Christian community due to the emergency. A study was made and it shows the necessity to help those different sectors: Widows, families under poverty line, elderly people, unemployed workers, people under health line conditions etc..

To support the above mentioned targets (about 300 families) we need funds starting April 2020 till the end of the year to cover the following : The expected budget (with an average of $267 per family per month) is as followed: