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“You are to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
~ Acts 1.8

The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem – Eastern Lieutenancy is an association of Roman Catholic Christian faithful entrusted with an important mission from the Holy Father – to serve as witnesses to the Christian faith and supporters and protectors of the Church and the living Christian communities in the Holy Land.

The Order’s mandate originates from the time of the crusader knights who were responsible for protecting the Christian pilgrims traveling to the sacred sites. Today the Order’s members continue to aid the Church in the Holy Land and to strengthen the practice of Christian life amongst its members.

Message from the Lieutenant

5 September 2025

Dear members,

In my capacity as the communications and marketing director of Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA), I arrived in Jerusalem 2 September on a pastoral visit, accompanying Msgr. Peter I. Vaccari, president of Catholic Near East Welfare Association-Pontifical Mission, Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori, vice president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and supreme chaplain of the Knights of Columbus; Patrick E. Kelly, supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus, who will be invested as a member of the Eastern Lieutenancy this October; and the supreme secretary of the Knights of Columbus, John A. Marrella.

Our pilgrimage began in Jerusalem and includes the Palestinian West Bank and Israel. It includes liturgies in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity and Nazareth’s Church of the Annunciation, and meetings with leaders of the region’s beleaguered Christian community. Despite its near destruction in Gaza, and strangling in the West Bank, the church packs a powerful punch, rushing food, water and medicines to starving families, providing medical attention through its network of maternity clinics and hospitals, offering psychological and spiritual counseling, and witnessing the love of God and neighbor, even toward those who may oppress them.

Our journey as pilgrims of hope follows the 12 August call of the president of the USCCB, U.S. Military Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, for a special collection to be taken up in parishes across the United States “to provide humanitarian relief and pastoral support for our affected brothers and sisters in Gaza and surrounding areas in the Middle East and send donated funds to CNEWA and C.R.S.”

As a knight of our beloved order, listening to the voices of the faithful ¾ from patriarchs, priests and friars to parents, students, mothers and fathers ¾ is giving us hope. As if una voce, with one voice, all speak of their determination to carry on the banner of the Joy of the Gospel, to confront the forces of extremism and hate with love, to stand firm in their faith. Our journey, has said each person we have met thus far, encourages, fuels and affirms they are not carrying the banner of the faith alone. They know their Christian sisters and brothers in the Bahamas, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York are with them in spirit and in solidarity.

They are not alone.

Each person has asked that I thank you for your support in prayer and in giving alms. And please know, they are praying for us, even as I have remembered you and your intentions at each Mass and holy place, grateful for your faith, commitment and concern.

Deus lo vult.

Michael J. La Civita, K.G.C.H.S.

Lieutenant

Photo Credit: Michael La Civita, CNEWA’s director of Communications and Marketing, John Marrella, supreme secretary of the Knights of Columbus, Father Francesco Ielpo, custos of the Holy Land, Archbishop William E. Lori, vice president of the USCCB, Patrick E. Kelly, supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus, Msgr. Peter I. Vaccari, CNEWA president, Joseph Hazboun, regional director of CNEWA-Pontifical Mission in Jerusalem. Notre Dame Center of Jerusalem. 2 September 2025. (photo: Joseph Saadeh)

Message from the Lieutenant

18 July 2025

Dear confreres,

Yesterday, Vatican News reported the Israeli Defense Forces shelled the only Catholic church in Gaza, killing three people sheltering there and injuring nine others, including Father Gabriele Romanelli, pastor.

“What we know for sure is that a tank — the IDF says by mistake, but we are not sure about this — they hit the church directly, the church of the Holy Family,” said Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, adding, “we don’t have complete information about what has happened in Gaza today because the communication in Gaza is not that simple.”

The Latin and Greek Orthodox parishes shelter the few remaining Christians in Gaza, as well as a number of Muslim families, and also serve as aid distribution centers for their neighborhoods — when food and water and medicines are available.

Both parish compounds have sustained damages since Israel’s onslaught on Gaza began nearly two years ago in response to the horrors of Hamas on 7 October 2023. Yet the military strike yesterday is the first in which the church took a direct hit.

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Mourners attend the burial of Palestinian Christians Saad Salameh and Fumia Ayyad at St. Porphyrios Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza 17 July. (photo: OSV News/Dawoud Abu Alkas, Reuters, courtesy CNEWA)

This grim news follows reports that the Israeli military has ordered tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza to evacuate again and relocate to an already devastated and overcrowded area near the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. The United Nations insists the area lacks “the basics of survival.”

Innocent human beings — trapped between the extremes of terrorism and total war — barely cling to life, robbed of their dignity, robbed of their right to live in peace and security, their families, homes, livelihoods and futures, destroyed.

God have mercy.

As the attention of the media, and much of the world, focuses on the hell that is Gaza, their compatriots in the West Bank are under siege, too, although not to the same degree of ferocity as in Gaza. In the last remaining Christian Palestinian village of Taybeh, extremist settlers have been torching agricultural lands and sites holy to the community, including a fifth-century church and its cemetery dedicated to St. George, as well as intimidating the community, often with the cover of the Israeli military.

On Monday, 14 July, the leadership of the Christian community, which included Cardinal Pizzaballa, conducted a solidarity visit to the town and together issued a statement decrying the violence and demanding the Israeli-government hold accountable the actions of extremist settlers.

The Greek and Latin patriarchs of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, left, and Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, right, conduct a pastoral visit in solidarity with the Christian community in Gaza on Friday, 18 July, after the Israeli military struck Holy Family Church the previous day. (photo, courtesy, Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.)

“On Monday, 7 July 2025,” read Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III from the statement, “radical Israelis from nearby settlements intentionally set fire near the town’s cemetery and the Church of Saint George, which dates to the 5th century.

… These actions are a direct and intentional threat to our local community first and foremost, but also to the historic and religious heritage of our ancestors and holy sites. In the face of such threats, the greatest act of bravery is to continue to call this your home.

“In recent months,” the joint statement continued, “the radicals have led their cattle to graze on the farms of Christians on the east side of Taybeh — the agricultural area — rendering them inaccessible at best but at worst damaging the olive groves that families depend on. Last month, several homes were attacked by these radicals, lighting fires and erecting a billboard that said, translated into English, “there is no future for you here.”

The Council of Patriarchs and Heads of Churches calls for these radicals to be held accountable by the Israeli authorities, who facilitate and enable their presence around Taybeh.

… “We call for an immediate and transparent investigation into why the Israeli police did not respond to emergency calls from the local community and why these abhorrent actions continue to go unpunished.”

“The attacks by the hands of settlers against our community, which is living in peace, must stop, both here in Taybeh and elsewhere throughout the West Bank.”

“This is clearly part of the systematic attacks against Christians that we see unfolding throughout the region.”

Knights and dames, we belong to a chivalric order of the Catholic Church dedicated to the support of the Christian community in the lands sanctified by the revelations of the One God, and the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

This community, as the patriarchs and heads of churches noted, only seeks peace and works as the last remaining leaven toward the common good: “We firmly reject this message of exclusion and reaffirm our commitment to a Holy Land that is a mosaic of different faiths, living peacefully together in dignity and safety.”

Let us double our prayers for peace in the Holy Land. Let us call for justice and mercy for all, without which there will be no lasting peace. Let us voice our support for the Christians of Gaza, Taybeh and throughout the entire Holy Land, “that their presence may be secured and that they can live in peace to worship freely, grow crops without danger, and live in a peace that seems to be in far too short of supply.”

“Truth and justice will ultimately prevail,” the patriarchs and heads of churches said, recalling the words of the Prophet Amos, “which becomes our prayer during this challenging time:

Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

Our Lady of Palestine, Pray for Us.

Deus lo Vult.

Michael J. La Civita, K.G.C.H.S.
Lieutenant

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