Friar Francesco Patton, outgoing custos of the Holy Land. / Credit: Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 15, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Friar Francesco Patton, the outgoing Franciscan custos of the Holy Land, reflected on his nine years in office and proposed a path to achieving peace in the face of war in the region. He also noted that being a Christian in the holy places, as a minority, is a special vocation and mission.

Patton, 61, is leaving the position entrusted to him in 2016. Friar Francesco Ielpo has now been appointed to the position, confirmed as the new custos of the Holy Land by Pope Leo XIV on June 24.

In an interview published July 11 on the website of the Custody of the Holy Land, the Italian Franciscan explained that, in the face of the war between Israel and Hamas, “peace requires mutual acceptance between the two peoples who have been in conflict for decades, and the overcoming of ideological readings of history, geography, and even of 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 together in peace,” he added.

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

Being a Christian in the Holy Land

Patton shared that “I have always said, especially to young people, to cultivate their identity as Christians of the Holy Land. They must not focus on ethno-political identities but on a deeper identity: being custodians, with us, of the holy places.”

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

The Italian priest emphasized that “being a Christian in the Holy Land is a vocation and a mission. If God lets you 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 salt which loses its flavor is useless.”

“I was deeply moved by the faithfulness of the two friars who remained in the Orontes Valley when ISIS and Al-Qaeda were present. They stayed because they knew they were shepherds, and not hired hands, using the words from Chapter 10 of St. John. Their availability to give their lives was not hypothetical but concrete in a very risky context,” he recalled.

“I was also struck by how important the holy places are to Christians who may only be able to visit once in their lives. In Brazil, I saw people who saved a little money each month for 10 or 15 years just to visit Nazareth, Bethlehem, and the Holy Sepulchre. Or a Christian from Syria visiting the Sepulchre and bursting into tears from the emotion,” the friar recounted.

After highlighting the great value of schools in the Holy Land, the outgoing custos said he was dismayed by “the growth of intolerance, extremism, and the ideological manipulation of religion for political purposes. That made, and still makes, me suffer.”

The holy places: An antidote to religious rationalism

The Italian friar emphasized that holy places, being physical, “bring faith back into a concrete, existential realm. They are a great help in avoiding a disembodied, intellectualized Christianity. They are an antidote against religious rationalism and intellectualism.”

“They also help us to understand the religiosity of the people,” the friar explained. “Intellectuals love reasoning, but people love to touch. They love to kiss a stone, smell the perfume of myrrh, see the olive trees in Gethsemane, the grotto of Bethlehem, Calvary, and the empty tomb.”

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

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.