The annual appeal contributes to very practical things like re-roofing churches, paving holy site parking lots, restoring ancient chapels, and renovating grottos, to preserve these sacred places and make them more accessible to pilgrims.

Last year, it also provided hundreds of scholarships for youth, helped the handicapped get work in Bethlehem, set up a house for poor children, build schools, and constructed apartments for low income couples.

The money supports the projects of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land and the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. Some of the funds go to the Vatican Congregation for Eastern Churches which gives special attention to education and scholarly endeavors.

According to Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, the charity seeks to help the Holy Land’s younger Christian generation remain in place to safeguard Christianity’s historic legacy by preserving its “living communities.”