Holy Land, Travelogue
Welcome to our Online Trip Journal
The first installment of the CRS travelogue will feature a trip to the holy land. Keep reading http://crs-blog.org/travelogue/ for more!
“As Americans, we ask for bold, persistent United States leadership for peace in the Middle East, leadership that supports and challenges both Israelis and Palestinians, that holds both sides accountable in a step-by-step peace process.”
Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired Archbishop of Washington, speaking on behalf of the National Interreligious Leadership on Peace in The Middle East.
Starting Sunday, September 23, 2007, ten CRS staff from various regions of the USA will travel to the West Bank and Jerusalem to meet with nearly 20 Palestinian, Israeli, US Government and UN political, religious and humanitarian leaders. Our immediate goal is simple, and at the same time nearly impossible: to gain a much deeper understanding of this complex situation and to explore practical ways that Catholics in the USA can, in some small way, support grassroots efforts to promote peace in this region that is Holy to Christians, Muslim and Jewish people worldwide.
We will record photos and highlights and personal reflections from our discussions each night during the trip, assuming the power (the electricity and our energy) holds up. We will invite you, our friends, colleagues and CRS supporters, to join our trip by tracking our progress in nearly real time, hearing about our meeting with people on both sides, and asking questions by email. We will do our very best to respond quickly to your questions. We will take one compelling question from the day before and ask the respond to this query, posting their answer on this website.
As we gather every night to share our reflections from the day, we will also join together in prayer that people in the Holy Land will find peace in the near future and that those traveling will better understand the complexity of issues around peace and justice in the region.
Peace!
- Cullen Larson, CRS Southeast regional office, Atlanta;
- Maureen McCullough and Dennis Fisher, CRS Northeast regional office, Philadelphia;
- Brian Backe, Hedley Abernethy and Barbara Myers, CRS Headquarters, Baltimore;
- Madeleine Philbin and John Taylor, CRS Midwest Regional Office, Chicago;
- Tom Price, Media unit and trip editor in Chief, CRS Headquarters, Baltimore;
- Doug Norell, CRS Legislative Affairs unit, Washington, DC.
4 Responses to “Welcome to our Online Trip Journal”
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September 23rd, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Dear Friends: Please know that I am praying for you all at each step of your journey. Having gone this trek before, 15 years ago, I was most pained by the situation then, which has only become disasterously worse year by year especially since the 2nd antifada. May God bring you to the right places to enter the dialogue with the right people so that you may open our eyes to what is happening now as we struggle simply to see clearly what is actually happening in Palestine/Israel. God is guiding your way. In hopeful anticipation for the success of your pilgrimage of perspective, Fr. Bob Cushing St. Theresa Catholic Church Cordele, GA 31015
September 23rd, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Hi Cullen et al
praying for you; keep up the good work. thank you for being you and making the rest of us look bad. such important work; open minds and hearts.
we love you
marian and Bill
September 24th, 2007 at 7:12 am
Hi Dad!
I love you and can’t wait to hear about everything.
Maria
October 5th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
It is wonderful to see you putting faith to action and being willing first to travel there and then to be willing to speak the truth of what you see. Especially since this is not always a popular view, but I guess the truth never has been.
Jeff Abood
Cleveland Diocesan Council on Global Solidarity