The Vatican News portal reports on a letter from the Custos of the Holy Land, Fr. Francesco Ielpo, OFM, dated February 18, 2026, urging support for the annual Good Friday “Pro Terra Sancta” Collection. The letter frames the collection as “a concrete sign of communion with the Church of Jerusalem” amid war and economic hardship in the Holy Land, emphasizing material support for schools, parishes, and charitable works to “keep alive the Christian presence.” The “Pontifical” collection is presented as a response to the “Pope’s” call for prayer and fasting for peace, with the goal of “rebuild[ing] relations, trust, hope” through education and “a culture of encounter and peace.” This entire narrative is a catastrophic abandonment of the Catholic Church’s supernatural mission, reducing the Faith to a naturalistic humanitarian project and promoting false communion with schismatic entities.
The “Concrete Sign” of a Heretical Communion
The core claim—that the collection is a “concrete sign of communion with the Church of Jerusalem”—is theologically catastrophic and a direct embrace of the modernist heresy of religious pluralism. The phrase “Church of Jerusalem” in the conciliar context refers not to the one, true Catholic Church (which alone possesses the fullness of communion), but to the local ecclesiastical structure occupying the Holy Land, which is in full communion with the “Pope” Leo XIV and his conciliar sect. This structure is composed of elements in grave doctrinal error, including the adoption of the heresy of religious liberty and ecumenism. The 1864 Syllabus of Errors, promulgated by Pope Pius IX, anathematizes the very notion that the Catholic Church can have “communion” in a positive sense with non-Catholic religious bodies:
> “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church.” (Error 55)
> “Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion, in which form it is given to please God equally as in the Catholic Church.” (Error 18)
To speak of “communion” with a local church that operates within the framework of the conciliar revolution—which explicitly endorses the false principle that all religions are paths to salvation (cf. Vatican II’s Nostra Aetate and Dignitatis Humanae)—is to commit Error 18. The pre-conciliar Church never spoke of “communion” with schismatics or heretics; it spoke of their obligation to convert and return to the one true fold. The article’s language, therefore, is not Catholic but modernist, promoting the “ecumenism project” condemned in the analysis of the Fatima apparitions file: it “opens the way to religious relativism” by treating the “Church of Jerusalem” as a legitimate partner in a shared mission, rather than as a body from which Catholics must defend the Faith.
Reduction of the Church’s Mission to Naturalistic Humanism
The article systematically omits any supernatural purpose for the collection. The funds support “schools, parishes, charitable works, social projects, and emergency interventions.” There is not a single mention of the primary goal of Catholic charity: the salvation of souls. This is the gravest omission, symptomatic of the “cult of man” that defines the post-conciliar sect. Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas, on the Feast of Christ the King, establishes the true Catholic framework for all social action:
> “For the Church… has received from Christ the command to teach all nations… to lead men to eternal happiness.”
> “The Church… cannot depend on anyone’s will… in fulfilling the mission entrusted to it by God—to teach, govern, and lead all to eternal happiness.”
The “Pro Terra Sancta” Collection, as described, operates entirely within the natural order: it rebuilds buildings, supports families, and fosters “a culture of encounter and peace.” This is the same naturalism condemned by St. Pius X in Lamentabili Sane Exitu, which denounces the modernist error that “Christian doctrine was initially Jewish, but through gradual development, it became… universal” (Proposition 60), implying a shift from supernatural to natural concerns. The article’s focus on “rebuild[ing] relations, trust, hope” through education is pure Pelagian optimism, devoid of the Catholic understanding that all true peace and hope flow only from the Social Kingship of Christ, who must reign in minds, wills, and hearts before any natural order can be healed.
The Omission of Christ the King and the Duty of Conversion
The most damning silence is the total absence of Our Lord Jesus Christ as King. The Custos speaks of “hope,” “fraternity,” and “peace,” but never of the necessity of individual and national conversion to the Catholic Faith. This is a direct repudiation of the doctrine so forcefully taught by Pius XI in Quas Primas:
> “His reign… extends not only to Catholic nations… but His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ.”
> “Let rulers of states therefore not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ, but let them fulfill this duty themselves and with their people, if they wish to maintain their authority inviolate and contribute to the increase of their homeland’s happiness.”
Where is the call for the conversion of the peoples of Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, and Syria to the one true Faith? Where is the demand that their governments publicly recognize Christ’s Kingship and enact laws in conformity with His commandments? The article’s entire premise is that the Christian presence is to be preserved as a cultural or humanitarian entity, not as a missionary outpost for the conversion of the world. This is the “national conversion without evangelization” error identified in the Fatima analysis, applied now to the Holy Land itself. It is an implicit acceptance of the modernist error that the Church’s mission is merely to “accompany” people in their current state, not to convert them.
The False “Pope’s” Call: Prayer for Peace Without Justice
The article quotes the “Holy Father’s” urging for “prayer and fasting for peace” and “an end to the conflict.” This aligns perfectly with the conciliar sect’s pacifist, naturalistic approach to geopolitics, which ignores the Catholic doctrine of just war and the duty of rulers to defend their people and uphold justice. The pre-conciliar Magisterium, as seen in the Syllabus, condemned the idea that “It is lawful to refuse obedience to legitimate princes, and even to rebel against them” (Error 63), but also upheld the right and duty of states to defend themselves and the moral order. More importantly, the conciliar “peace” initiatives are devoid of the condition of justice and the recognition of Christ’s Kingship. As Pius XI stated:
> “When God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed… the entire human society had to be shaken.”
Prayer for peace without a simultaneous, unequivocal call for the public reign of Christ the King over all nations is a sacrilegious mockery. It treats God as a cosmic genie who can grant temporal peace to peoples who persist in rejecting His law. The article presents this as the summit of Catholic social concern, thereby teaching the faithful to prioritize a vague, naturalistic “peace” over the non-negotiable demand for the conversion of all peoples to the Catholic Faith.
The “Custos” and the Conciliar Ecclesiastical Structure
The figure of the “Custos of the Holy Land,” Fr. Francesco Ielpo, OFM, is a functionary of the conciliar sect. His title and office exist within the post-1958 “Church,” which has abandoned the immutable constitution of the Church given by Christ. The very existence of a “Custos” promoting a collection in communion with a local “church” that operates under the principles of Nostra Aetate and Dignitatis Humanae is a sign of the “abomination of desolation.” The Franciscan Order itself, after Vatican II, was thoroughly infiltrated by modernism, and its members now often act as agents of the conciliar revolution. The letter’s tone—emotional, therapeutic (“hope appears wounded”), focused on “encounter”—is the language of the post-conciliar “pastoral” approach, condemned by St. Pius X as the “synthesis of all errors” (Modernism) in Pascendi Dominici Gregis.
Conclusion: A Tool of the Conciliar Apostasy
The “Pro Terra Sancta” Collection, as presented, is not a Catholic work of mercy. It is a humanitarian project of the neo-church, designed to:
1. Perpetuate the illusion of a “Catholic” presence in the Holy Land that is actually in full communion with modernist antipopes.
2. Substitute material aid for the primary duty of evangelization and the call to conversion.
3. Promote false “communion” with schismatic and heterodox bodies under the guise of shared humanitarian concern.
4. Instill in the faithful a naturalistic, sentimental concern for “the other” while deadening their sense of the absolute necessity of the Catholic Faith for salvation.
The unchanging Catholic doctrine, summarized in the Profession of Faith of Pope Pius IV, requires us to hold that “there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church” and that “the Church is a society perfect in its kind, and not merely a human society, but a divine one, founded by Christ, governed by the Roman Pontiff and the bishops in communion with him.” The article’s entire framework denies this by treating the “Church of Jerusalem” as a legitimate entity with which “communion” is possible, and by reducing the collection’s purpose to maintaining a Christian “presence” without any reference to the purity of Faith or the conversion of souls. It is a perfect expression of the “ecumenism project” and the “diversion from apostasy” noted in the Fatima file: it focuses on external, material suffering while omitting the far greater danger of the modernist apostasy within the very structures it supports.
The true Catholic response is not to fund this conciliar humanitarianism, but to pray and work for the conversion of the Holy Land to the immutable Faith of the pre-1958 Church, and to support—if any remain—those few Catholics who hold to that Faith in those regions, in communion with the true, albeit hidden, hierarchy. The “Pro Terra Sancta” Collection, as currently promoted, is a concrete sign of apostasy.
Source:
Custos of Holy Land: Good Friday collection is concrete sign of communion (vaticannews.va)
Date: 18.02.2026