Of all the tourists who go to Israel and its surroundings each year, it’s estimated that more than half of them are Christian pilgrims visiting the holiest sites of the Christian story. It was Pope Clement VI who made the Franciscans the official guardians of these sites seven centuries ago. More →

March 28, 2014

“St. Francis considers himself to be a brother to everyone,” say Father Larry Dunham of the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America. “He had his own special vision.” More →

March 22, 2013

“Religion isn’t bad, but until religion becomes actual spiritual experience, it is just religion,” says this sometimes controversial Franciscan priest and author. More →

November 11, 2011

Benedict said that in Francis’s hometown, the “city of peace,” he felt a duty to make a heartfelt appeal for peace. More →

June 22, 2007