JERUSALEM — In late April, more than a dozen well-known Italian athletes ran from Jerusalem to the Israeli-Palestinian checkpoint on the outskirts of Bethlehem.

Israeli athletes ran alongside the Italians until the checkpoint, and Palestinian athletes accompanied them from there onward. One member of the delegation carried a lighted torch blessed by Pope John Paul II.

Prior to the race, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, papal vicar of Rome and president of the Italian bishops’ conference, told the participants that “athletes are ambassadors of peace … and a symbol of what is possible (through) peace and dialogue.”

The high-profile Jerusalem-to-Bethlehem marathon was one of the many events and tours organized in recent months by Church officials eager to bring more pilgrims to the Holy Land.

Since the start of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000, the number of Catholic pilgrims to Israel and the Palestinian authorities has plummeted, according to the Israeli Ministry of Tourism. The drop, which was estimated at about 90% until the start of this year, has had a profound effect on local Christians, many of whom rely on pilgrimages for their livelihoods.

The Pope has often spoken out about the many difficulties facing Holy Land Christians, whose numbers have dwindled since the late 1940s, and the need to show solidarity with them. In this spirit, the Italian bishops’ conference late last year called on its bishops to reinstate pilgrimages and to set a goal of one Italian group per week.

The move followed intense meetings with Israeli tourism officials as well as with clergy based in the Holy Land, who stressed that local Christians often feel isolated, even abandoned.

Since then there have been several well-publicized visits by Church leaders, including Italian Cardinal Pio Laghi, and numerous pilgrimages arranged by the Vatican Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, the Vatican's official pilgrimage organizer.

Big Impact

It's easy to see why the drop in Catholic pilgrimages has had such a negative impact on local Christians and on Holy Land tourism as a whole. In 2000, Catholics represented 32% of all tourists to Israel; in 2003, they represented just 11%. Protestants, in contrast, were just 18% of Holy Land visitors in 2000 and barely 8% in 2003.

Since the end of January and the beginning of February, “there has been a huge increase of Catholic pilgrimages from Italy to Israel,” an Israeli tourism official said in an interview. From January to March, there was a 154% jump over the same period last year, from 3,044 pilgrims to 7,746 so far this year, the official noted.

The official said there has also been a noticeable increase in visitors from other Catholic countries during the same period. The number of Spaniards rose by 229%, the number of Mexicans by 291% and the number of Irish by 99%.

Gerard Denis, undersecretary of the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Jerusalem, said the local Church has worked hard to realize these numbers. Denis said Father Pierre Grech, the assembly's secretary, recently traveled to France and met with pilgrimage leaders “to assure them that it is safe here.”

Denis noted that “not one pilgrim has lost a drop of blood” during a visit to the Holy Land. “Pilgrimages are not targets,” he said.

While the pilgrimages are spiritually uplifting to all those who visit, Denis said, the effect pilgrimages have on Holy Land Christians is perhaps even more important.

“The mother church is in Jerusalem,” he said. “We don't want Christians in the Holy Land to feel forsaken. They fear that the world does not think about them. When Christians come it tells them that people the world over want to know their situation and help. People cannot say it isn't their problem.”

Thanks in large part to the Church's efforts to get pilgrimages back on track, it is no longer unusual to see tour groups at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem's Old City or at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Hotels and restaurants are recording a modest upturn in business.

Americans Needed

Even so, most local tour operators say they have yet to experience a pilgrimage boom and say they are suffering as a result.

“Business during most of the intifada has been down 90-something percent,” said Basem Khoury, the owner of Shepherds Tours in Jerusalem. “Before the intifada we used to average 60 to 70 groups in April. This April we had three small ones.”

Prior to the uprising, Khoury said, his agency had 12 employees. Eight of them have since been laid off due to the dearth of visitors.

Khoury, a Christian Arab whose agency specializes in Christian pilgrimages, said his own business has increased “10% to 15%, but that includes both Catholics and Protestants.”

The tour operator said American Catholics, once the backbone of his business, are still scarce.

“We need them to come, to give us both financial and moral support,” he said.

Khoury stressed that “so many people benefit” when Christians put aside their concerns and come to the Holy Land.

“You see it at the hotels and the transport companies, in the restaurants and souvenir shops,” Khoury said. “Even vegetable stores benefit when you have a group staying in a hotel because the hotel needs to prepare food.”

Michele Chabin writes from Jerusalem.