Pope Francis has urged journalists in the Middle East to keep telling stories from the Holy Land, calling it the “Fifth Gospel”. Source: CNA.
“Making the Holy Land known means transmitting the ‘Fifth Gospel,’ that is, the historical environment and geographical area in which the Word of God was revealed and then made flesh in Jesus of Nazareth, for us and for our salvation,” the Pope said in the Apostolic Palace yesterday.
“It also means making known the people who live there today, the life of the Christians of various Churches and denominations, but also those of Jews and Muslims, to try to build, in a complex and difficult context like that of the Middle East, a fraternal society.”
The phrase “the Fifth Gospel” has been invoked by popes from Paul VI to Benedict XVI to describe the Holy Land.
In his speech, Pope Francis quoted Benedict XVI’s description of the Holy Land as the place where the history and geography of salvation meet.
“There ‘we can see, indeed, tangibly feel the reality of the history that God brought about with men and women; beginning with the places of Abraham’s life and including the places of Jesus’ life, from the Incarnation to the empty tomb, the sign of his Resurrection. Yes, God entered this land, he acted with us in this world,’” Pope Francis said, quoting Benedict’s Regina Coeli address from May 17, 2009.
The Pope met with a group of journalists from the Jerusalem-based Christian Media Centre as it celebrates the 100th anniversary of its flagship Italian magazine, La Terra Santa.
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Pope Francis: The story of the Holy Land is the 'Fifth Gospel' (By Courtney Mares, CNA)
