The Canção Nova Community in the Holy Land
Since the beginning the founder of the Canção Nova Community, Msgr. Jonas Abib, had a dream to put the Charism Canção Nova to the service of the Church in the Holy Land.
n March 2005, with the arrival of the first missionaries and, thanks to a partnership with the Maronite Church in the Bethlehem Convent, this dream became a reality.
The Community then began to evangelize by producing journalistic content, videos, TV programs and website, as well as supporting pilgrimages with the Brazilian Community Obra de Maria and the PJJ (Peregrinatio Jubilaeum Jerusalem).
Community and friends in Bethlehem, 2005
Partnership between the Canção Nova Community
and the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa
The current Patriarch and former Custos of the Holy Land, His Eminence Pierbattista Pizzaballa, once said:
“One of the questions I asked myself was: How to communicate the Holy Land?’(…)
The Christians worldwide knew little about this place, and that little was just the problems… We needed to communicate a positive message…
It was clear to me that the most important form of communication, apart from the magazine, was television… I had this idea but I didn’t know how to do it… Then a light appeared!
The Founder of Canção Nova came here, born in Brazil, but with Oriental origins, Father Jonas. I then made the proposal: ‘Why don’t you come to collaborate here with us?’
This project was only possible thanks to Canção Nova… Without Canção Nova, it wouldn’t be possible to have the CMC (Christian Media Center)“.
Thus, between 2007 and 2008, the first partnership between the Custody of the Holy Land and the Canção Nova Community was established.
This has allowed it to carry out its charism in a wider and more specific way through the mission of evangelizing through the media.
In the beginning everything was very simple, but the gradual growth culminated in the creation of a media center, originally named Franciscan Media Center, and in 2014, was changed to Christian Media Center (CMC).
In 2016, Fra Francesco Patton, the new Custos of the Holy Land, also recognized the value of this partnership, drawing on his formation in Communication Sciences from the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome, expanding this mission, especially by having more livestreams. (He was the first Custos to visit the Canção Nova Motherhouse in Brazil in 2018.)
Monsignor Jonas used to say: “God speaks into the facts”. Through more than 15 years of the presence of the Canção Nova Community at the service of the Church in the Land of Jesus, bringing Christian, ecumenical and interreligious content in several languages, showing and transmitting the beauty and riches of the Holy Land through news, events, festivities and liturgical celebrations, they reveal that: “So by their fruits you will know them.” (Mt 7:20).
Fr. Francesco Patton, ofm