"Like shepherds reads the document (full text *.pdf) that also summarises the stages of the pastoral visit made by the Coordination we invite the congregation of our nations to remember the Church of the Holy Land in its prayers, to support its institutions, to go on a pilgrimage to the sacred places, to promote peace and justice for all the populations of the region". "Our concern for the local Church leads us stated the bishops to share the fears and the sufferings as well as the joys and the hopes of those people. We acknowledge Israel’s legitimate right to take appropriate measures to increase security, provided such measures respect the dignity, the human rights, the land and the water of the Palestinians" whose "difficulty and poverty we can testify", "the direct consequence of the check-points and the wall, that impair economic development and freedom of movement". "Israel’s security it repeats is related to justice for the Palestinians". Recalling the words of John Paul II first and then those of Benedict XVI, the Coordination invites to "build bridges, not walls. We have to work for a just peace, that will acknowledge security for Israel and freedom for the Palestinians". Hence the request "to our own communities and governments" to "work hard to find a fair solution to the conflict". "The difficult situation in the Holy Land – concludes the document does not make us optimistic, but our faith and our meetings with the young make us hope for a new beginning".
