Best wishes for a happy Easter from the president of the Foundation
Dear Friends of the Foundation,
These days we write on our social media, on our webpage, "a safe place" for the children of Bethlehem.
A few words sufficient to unite us in a dilated embrace to reach that land and place origin and inspiration of the Founders of the Foundation.
"Place-Safe Place-Children-Bethlehem" are the cardinal points that reconfigure the space where it is still possible to experience hope mortally wounded by the terrible consequences of violence, savagery, and absence of humanity in men that no century has limited (the Israel-Hamas war).
The place: our Bethlehem location. A large garden area in the immediate vicinity of the historic center where the architecture of the buildings bordering on beauty in form and color impose themselves and already host -for extracurricular activities- the children of Bethlehem families.
Safe: because it ensures. It has a protective function whereby one feels safe and regains a sense of tranquility, helps to leave anxieties in the background of one's mind and prevents being alone and getting lost.
Children: "a child is a small person, with small hands, small feet and small ears, but not for that reason with small ideas" (Beatrice Alemagna). They are natural poets because they have a spontaneous inclination for poetry that we adults often do not have. The vocabulary available to them is playfully limited with little amount of words to express themselves and too few compared to their inner world and so they use tiny flashes of genius to speak to us. It is innocent and pure creature that must be accompanied, protected, and preserved so that the good components that characterize it may endure into adulthood. (J.J. Rousseau).
Bethlehem: by the name Beth Lechem, "House of Bread," and also Ephrata, which literally means "Fruitful" so it was called in the Old Testament. Even today it still leads us back to the idea of a place of fertility and abundance. In Arabic the name means "House of Meat" because of the large number of flocks of sheep and goats that populate the slopes of an area that declines labors and surprises.
From far away, since October, the terrible, dull, distressing echo of war has spread ominously to those places the Foundation loves. In Bethlehem, while the bells of the Church of the Nativity will announce Easter according to the Western calendar, the children will not have the smiles of feast days; their families locked in fear and anguish over a temporary future will not be able to come to their aid to restore the time each child deserves. The witch (war) only in fairy tales (Hansel and Gretel) ends up burned in the oven, while the children of Bethlehem have been deprived of the smile that flows from fairy tales.
The Foundation is committed to the project of welcoming at the Al-Faraiheya site to continue their extracurricular experiences Bethlehemite children and all those we are able to accommodate relying on the help of our friends and the many donors who have continued to believe in the Foundation and its projects for years.
This is our Easter.
...And sitting down, they stood guard over him. Above his head they placed the written reason for his condemnation, "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." Together with him two thieves were crucified, one on the right and one on the left. (Matthew 27:36-38)
...On the evening of that day, the first of the week, as the doors of the place where the disciples were standing were closed for fear of the Jews, the Lord Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, "Peace be with you!" Having said this, he showed them his hands and his side. And the disciples rejoiced at seeing the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you! (John 20:19-23)
Best wishes for a Happy Easter
Andrea Bottinelli
President of the John Paul II Foundation