FFHL President to Make Two-Month Apostolate Visit Beginning in September
(PRWEB) August 25, 2016 -- Departing from Jerusalem, Fr. Peter Vasko, OFM travels twice a year back to the United States in hopes of raising awareness and support for the marginalized Christians in the Holy Land.
Fr. Vasko hails from New York and entered the religious life with the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land in 1981 and was ordained a priest in 1987.
Having spent over 20 years as the President of the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land (FFHL) and living in the Holy Land, Fr. Vasko understands and sees the struggles Christians face in the Holy Land everyday.
"Our mission is to do more than just provide basic necessities to Christians in the Holy Land; it is to give them hope for a future in the land where they were born," said Fr. Vasko. “The Christian exodus is a crisis that does not just effect the Christians in the Holy Land. It effects every Christian in the world today.”
Fr. Vasko will arrive for his next FFHL Apostolate trip on Sept. 1st spending three days in New York and then moving on to Columbus, Ohio.
His eight-week-long trip will include benefit dinners in Ohio, Fla., Texas and La. He will also be leading a one-day retreat with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal in Arizona. Others stops for Fr. Vasko will include Washington, D.C., Calif., S.C., Ill. and Ind. He will be meeting with FFHL supports and volunteers in these states.
“It is our duty as Franciscans in the Holy Land to give voice to the Christians living in the place where Jesus was born, lived and died,” Fr. Vasko remarked. “It is in the trips to the United States that we can educate and inform American Catholics about the crisis in the Holy Land.”
In addition to the presentations, benefit dinners and meetings with FFHL supporters, Fr. Vasko will be conducting a meeting of the FFHL Board of Trustees in Springfield, IL on Oct. 8. The FFHL currently has Trustees from across the U.S., including notables such as EWTN personality Raymond Arroyo, Most Rev. Christophe Pierre, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who serve the Foundation in various capacities.
During his trip, Fr. Vasko will visit more than a dozen cities from coast-to-coast to tell people about the work of the FFHL and to give a first-hand account of the crisis in the Holy Land and Middle East. His personal account of daily life in these places will reach many. His journey will conclude in New York from where he will depart for the Holy Land on Oct 19.
To learn more about Fr. Peter’s Fall Apostolate visit, to schedule an in-person or phone interview or learn more about the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land, contact Breanna Holder via email at media(at)ffhl(dot)org or by phone at 1-855-372-0580. For additional information, visit the FFHL online Press Room.
Breanna Holder, Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land, http://www.ffhl.org, +1 (317) 574-4194, [email protected]
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