JERUSALEM - The head of Caritas in Jerusalem said he would launch an international appeal to help with the Gaza Strip and would not wait until the end of Israeli-Hamas hostilities, as he had done in the past.

Jesus, it seems, had mixed feelings towards the world. He loved the world, laid down His life for it and challenged us to love the world, even as He criticized it harshly and stated clearly that it was opposed to Him. 

JERUSALEM - The Pope had a simple plan as he set out for the Holy Land with a rabbi and a Muslim sheik in tow. But simple plans can be difficult to execute.

The graffiti which has appeared on the walls of some Jerusalem churches in advance of Pope Francis' visit is nothing new. Which makes in no less ugly and no less crazy.

JERUSALEM - Ahead of Pope Francis’ Holy Land visit, the heads of Christian churches in the region plan to launch an international awareness campaign following a series of anti-Christian vandalism believed to have been carried out by Jewish extremists.

ROME - The Orthodox bishop who is co-ordinating the upcoming pilgrimage to Jerusalem by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople said he hopes the patriarch's May 25 meeting with Pope Francis will give new impetus to efforts for Christian unity.

I first met Berlanty Azzam just outside the Old City of Jerusalem. Pulling up in a taxi, the business administration student had arrived directly from the Gaza Strip. Our cameraman was determined to capture her exact moment of arrival.

It was the first time she had been in Jerusalem in years and, more importantly, the first time that the Israeli government permitted her to leave Gaza since she had been deported there from the West Bank one month earlier. She was now preparing to meet with her lawyers before she contested the deportation at Israel’s Supreme Court.

The old city of Jerusalem may seem like a great place to visit or make a pilgrimage to, but it actually comes with its share of social problems, according to Carl Hétu.

“There’s a lot of poverty, a lot of school dropouts, a lot of drugs, alcohol, violence and theft within the old city,” said Hétu, the Canadian national director of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, an organization that helps support the pastoral mission and institutions of the Catholic Church in the Mideast.

JERUSALEM - With Easter in full swing, it can be a daunting task to find a quiet moment of contemplation at any of Jerusalem's holy sites, but it is especially so at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Throngs of pilgrim groups and tourists with cameras pack the church, posing for photos at the spots where Jesus was crucified or laid in the tomb. Some place souvenirs on the sacred sites for a blessing.

But at the Stone of Unction, which commemorates the anointing of Jesus before burial, some faithful find the noise from other visitors fades away. The smell of rose water with which the stone is periodically bathed permeates the immediate vicinity.

JERUSALEM - Religious leaders in Jerusalem urged peoples of all denominations to take their faith-based commitment to the stewardship of God's creation to the U.N. Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil June 20-22.

"We need to bring an invitation for all religious leaders from all faiths" to speak publicly, with determination, "so that we turn religion into a part of the solution rather than ... risking more and more becoming part of the problem," Melkite Archbishop Elias Chacour of Haifa told Catholic News Service at the March 19 Interfaith Climate and Energy Conference coordinated by the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development.

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- At the entrance to St. Saviour Church, Aloysious Leone and women in traditional Indian dress gathered around Trivandrum Archbishop Mari Soosa Pakiam to ask his blessing and kiss his ring.

Leone, 36, a Catholic from southern India, was among about 150 Indian Catholics who braved rain and freezing temperatures to attend a Mass of thanksgiving with church leaders from their country at Jerusalem's St. Saviour Church.

"It is very special to have our cardinals and priests here and be able to attend a Mass with them," he said.

WASHINGTON - Peace in the Holy Land will come only when all parties embrace justice and forgiveness and sacrifice for the good of all people, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem said during a program at the United States Institute of Peace.

Patriarch Fouad Twal called for continued prayer so that Jews, Muslims and Christians understand that true peace entails more than talking about who's right and who's wrong.