Msgr. Frank Lane will be the featured speaker at the Cradling Christianity benefit dinner supporting the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land on Thursday, Sept. 22 at Columbus Our Lady of Victory Church, 1559 Roxbury Road.
A retired priest from the diocese who now lives in Cincinnati, Msgr. Lane, 82, will present “Christianity in the Holy Land: An Epic Tale” after a reception and social hour that begins at 6 p.m. and a dinner at 7 p.m.
Msgr. Lane has served as a parish priest, an instructor at the Pontifical College Josephinum, a military chaplain and as a spiritual director at The Athenaeum of Ohio – Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West in Cincinnati. He also hosts a weekly series on St. Gabriel Catholic Radio in Columbus and southern Ohio.
Bishop Earl Fernandes will celebrate a Mass at 5 p.m. He is one of the honored guests for the event along with Father Peter Vasko, OFM, president of the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land.
Cradling Christianity was founded in 2006 by a small group of Catholics in Columbus to support the work of the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land. The group held fundraising events supported by Father Vasko for 14 consecutive years until they were suspended in 2020 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Local members, who have participated in pilgrimages to the Holy Land through the years, have raised more than $1 million since Cradling Christianity’s inception to provide funds for the Franciscan Foundation’s university scholarship program.
The principal mission of the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land, founded in 1994, is to prevent Christians from leaving the region by providing educational opportunities.
Only 0.2 percent of the population in the Holy Land (approximately 175,000 people) are Christians. An estimated 300 families leave each year because of political strife and economic hardship, raising concerns that Christians might disappear from the area of Christ’s birth, death and resurrection in the next 50 years.
As an example, Bethlehem has gone from being 70 percent Christian in 1946 to 12 percent in 2018. The other 88 percent today are Muslims.
Since 1997, the Franciscan Foundation’s university scholarship program has provided more than 500 full scholarships worth a total of $6 million to give students who show academic talent but are economically challenged an opportunity to find gainful employment in the region.
Father Vasko has led the Franciscan Foundation since its beginning. He has lived in Jerusalem for more than 30 years. The Franciscans have been the official custodians of the holy sites since 1342 after a decree by Pope Clement VI.
Tables and individual tickets for Cradling Christianity’s reception and dinner are available online at www.FFHL.org/regions/Columbus-region. Space is limited.
For more information on the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land and Cradling Christianity, visit www.FFHL.org.
