Christian Information Center: a new project | Custodia Terrae Sanctae

Christian Information Center: a new project

It has been a year already since restoration works started at the Christian Information Center: an ambitious project.

A work in progress...for a large project: this is how the Christian Information Center looks like today. Over a year ago the Christian Information Center headquarters shut down to start on a very ambitious renovation project.

Fr. AGUSTÍN PELAYO FREGOSO, ofm
Director - Christian Information Center
“We have been working here for almost a year. This is such a beautiful place, in the center of the city, at this great door, through which pilgrims entered in the last 2000 years, not only Christians, but pilgrims from all religions...”

This project was born from the experience of many friars, who wanted to share their knowledge, in order to give people that little extra something and to better describe the most important place of all: the Holy Sepulcher.



Fr. AGUSTÍN PELAYO FREGOSO, ofm
Director - Christian Information Center
“Everything stems from the desire to talk about the Holy Sepulcher. With our experience as friars and guides to pilgrims, we know how dificult it is...anyone who visits this place tries to describe the most significant site in the world and in our faith....people cannot understand...it is hard to explain and to describe; we want to talk for at least two hours about the 2000 years of history that surround this special place that is so relevant for our faith...but it is not possible. We feel disappointed because a lot of people get upset: they visited all the holy places in the Holy Land, they sang Christmas Carols in Bethlehem and then they get here and they ask: ‘where is the Mount? Where is the tomb? What happened here?‘ “

This Center for the Custody provides information to those who want to learn about the importance of Christianity in the Holy Land since 1973, and it offers a range of services , including a mass booking program for the Franciscan Sanctuaries in the Holy Land.

Fr. AGUSTÍN PELAYO FREGOSO, ofm
Director - Christian Information Center
“We realized that this place had so many rooms, so we reorganized the services that we offer here...we provide information to those who want not only do some tourist sightseeing, but also want to visit the holy places and the Christian communities. This is very important. Perhaps there are just over 18 thousand of us among 1 million inhabitants, here in Jerusalem, so this presence is important.
People who visit the Holy Land want to understand...and that is also what we do here.

The restoration works that should be finished next Easter will involve, among other projects, the construction of multimedia rooms and, as Father Agustin said in this interview: ‘Nowadays, the images tell their own stories’

Fr. AGUSTÍN PELAYO FREGOSO, ofm
Director - Christian Information Center
“At the top there will be a multimedia room in which we will play a video that will take us back to the beginning: it will show the tomb in Jesus’ time and then it will show the changes over time and the 2000 year journey in 12 minutes,
There will be 5 more rooms where we will describe Jesus’ places: it is important for people to see where Jesus lived.
And then we want to focus on Jesus’ last week, and we will do it here, in Jerusalem, in these places that are filled with His presence and with His message; the message of the Gospel.”