Under the luminous sky of Jaffa, Friar Agustin Pelayo OFM - Franciscan friar of the Custody of the Holy Land - builds bridges between different cultures and religions. With more than two decades in these sacred territories, his life is a testimony of dedication to religious vocation and dialogue in one of the most complex and fascinating regions of the world.
With a degree in Tourism and Theology, Friar Agustin has turned his dual formation into an instrument to guide not only pilgrims and communities. Ordained a priest in 2010, his career has ranged from the formation of new candidates to Franciscan life to the direction of the Information Center for Christian Pilgrims, thanks to his mastery of Arabic, Spanish and other languages.
For the past nine years, he has served as pastor at St. Anthony of Padua Church, a microcosm of the universality of the Church: Christian Arabs of the Roman rite, Filipino migrants, Indians, Africans, Latin Americans and diplomats gather under his pastoral guidance.
In this interview, Friar Augustine reflects on his calling, the challenges of shepherding a multicultural community in the Holy Land and the hope that sustains him in the midst of political and social tensions.
What are the greatest challenges facing Franciscans in the Holy Land today?
- Our mission continues to be to live the Gospel with coherence, as St. Francis taught: "May our life proclaim Christ without the need for words". We guard two pillars: the "stones of the Gospel memory" (the holy places) and the "living stones" (the Christian communities).
We maintain schools, housing and work to sustain their faith. We serve everyone without distinction. We engage in interreligious dialogue through actions, not documents. In our parishes there are Christians of Eastern rites, Protestants, Jews at Christmas and even Muslims who honor Mary.
How do they promote coexistence between religions?
- We have an evangelization secretariat focused on dialogue with Jews and Muslims. At the Magnificat Institute in Jerusalem, where Jews, Christians and Muslims study music together. When a Jew plays the organ and a Muslim sings a psalm, a common language is created. Art dismantles prejudices and shows that beauty is a bridge between religions.
In addition, we receive daily gestures: Muslims who return inherited Bibles, Jews who donate crosses at Passover, or the municipality of Tel Aviv, which cleans our cemetery and built a park for children.
What impact do pilgrim arrivals have on the region?
- They are bearers of hope. Not only do they sustain tourism (hotels, transportation, stores, etc.), but they help local Christians feel part of something bigger. Today we are only 2% of the population, but with pilgrims, that symbolic presence grows. Unfortunately, many emigrate because of the lack of lasting peace and internal conflicts between Arab families.
How does the political conflict affect your work?
- In Jaffa, although we hear missile sirens and run to shelters, my community remains hopeful. Parishioners, with steady jobs, support those suffering in troubled areas. It is a source of pride to see their generosity.
What lessons from the past guide your current work?
- To be a Franciscan is to be a "pacified Christian and brother to all," like the first friars. It does not go out of fashion because it is about loving without distinctions, something vital in a place marked by divisions.
How do you envision the future of Christian communities here?
- I dream of children playing without inherited hatreds. We adults are the ones who create barriers. I long for a Holy Land where everyone feels "at home", celebrating weddings and holidays together. But this will only happen if each person strives for fraternity, making the whole world a "common home".
As a pastor in a multicultural community, what is your greatest learning experience?
- Diversity teaches that faith transcends cultures. In the Church of St. Anthony of Padua, an Indian prays next to an Arab, a Filipino helps a Latin American... It is the universal Church. Managing this requires listening and humility, but it is a grace to see how Christ unites what the world divides.
What would you say to anyone who wants to support the Christians of the Holy Land?
- Come as pilgrims! Your presence nourishes our hope. And pray for peace.
What are the greatest challenges facing Franciscans in the Holy Land today?
- The challenges have changed little, the vocation of the Friars Minor in the Holy Land since the sending of friars from the Poor Man of Assisi; he was very clear, he said that we had to live in the best way the message of the Gospel in such a way that it was not necessary to announce it but with our own life, in such a way that those who believe differently can ask why we live in this way.
The Franciscan mission cannot be understood without two types of stones; the stones of the Gospel memory, the place of the HIC, here it happened and then the custodians of those memories with their faith, that is our Christian brothers of the different denominations that live near the sacred places, first the sanctuary that in many cases is the seat of the parish, then the school to form in the Christian values and sciences and later to give the possibility of housing and work.
Our communities are a richness because they are an example that we can live in diversity and peacefully, all our Franciscan communities are international and this helps us to be open to the needs of others. The political factor is not part of our mission; we are here for everyone without making distinctions of race or creed, we are here to be able to contribute a little of all the good that we have received from the Lord and it is the Lord whom we thank for giving us the possibility of living in his land close to those who suffer most, praying for peace in the sanctuaries of our redemption.
In a region marked by religious diversity, how do you promote dialogue and coexistence between Jews, Muslims and Christians?
- In this area we have a secretariat of Evangelization composed of different friars, some of whom are more sensitive to Islamic dialogue and others to dialogue with Judaism, depending on the languages we have had the possibility of learning during our theological formation. We do this also on the feasts of each of our Abrahamic brethren, with dialogue in our schools, and above all also in a music institute established in our main friary in the Old City of Jerusalem. The music institute called Magnificat where Jews, Christians and Muslims are trained in this art.
We live concrete experiences on a daily basis because in this multicultural and multi-religious environment it is easy to enrich ourselves with constant experiences. Muslims who bring home Gospels that they have had at home since their grandparents and who prefer to bring them to the church to be given to a Christian family to be read, or Muslim women who come to bring flowers to the Virgin Mary. Maria.
This Passover a Jewish family from a famous jewelry store in the Tel Aviv area contacted me before Easter to ask if I would be interested in receiving about 2000 crosses with their chains to deliver for the solemnity of Passover; or the Jewish municipality of Tel Aviv, which cleans our cemetery twice a year or which gave us a playground for our parish for the use and enjoyment of the children and to create more human relationships.
What impact do pilgrims have on the lives of Christians in Israel?
- The pilgrims are bearers of hope and possibilities of future dreams for everyone here in the Holy Land, they not only help Christians with their pilgrimage, here there are many people of the three religions who are engaged in the tourism sector. They help by generating work in the hotel industry, transportation, restaurants, businesses and Christian cooperatives. They do not give the fish, they give the net to fish and this has an impact on the quality of life and on the feeling of being not only the scarce 2% of the population, but perhaps a little more, perhaps on occasions of many pilgrims we feel up to 5% of the population. There is an exodus because of the little hope of a sincere and lasting peace, and also because of problems related to internal conflicts of Arab families of the two religions that face conflicts of economic character and of hatred and racism.
How does the political and social situation in the region affect your work?
- Honestly, in the area where I am, we do not have those difficulties, we certainly have to face the sound of sirens announcing the proximity of a missile, the time to run to a shelter. My Christians for the most part have a good job and good possibilities and this does not make them forget their brothers on the other side and they are always willing and generous to collaborate with the needs of those who have less. And this is something I am very proud of in my parish in Jaffa.
How do you work to be agents of reconciliation in the midst of tensions?
- Francis of Assisi sent his children to be witnesses of Jesus Christ and sent them to be pacified and Francis himself came to seek peace, his dialogue with the Sultan; It is not a mere friendship of the moment born of sympathy, but it is an authentic dialogue of Francis that announces Christ, that is what we have to do here also to announce Christ but if it is forbidden, then we do it with life, with the little things and with the concrete certainty that we are not for ourselves but to announce the Risen Christ who as the first gift of his Resurrection offers us his peace.
With eight centuries of Franciscan presence in the region, what lessons from the past do you consider essential to address present challenges?
- Franciscanism cannot go out of fashion because to be a Franciscan is to be nothing other than a Christian; but a pacified and reconciled Christian. A Christian who feels that he is a brother and who strives to be a brother and to be a sign of the Father's love for all his children, living his vocation in the joy of service to all without distinction. This is what the first friars did and this is what we too are called to do in 2025.
What are your dreams or hopes for the future of the Christian communities in the Holy Land?
- Dreaming is good and it is possible for dreams to come true, I dream of seeing children play. Children play with everyone, children do not make differences; differences and hatred are fed by adults and we harm even children, taking away the possibility of living a more beautiful life, a better life.
I dream of a holy land where we all feel at home, where we can all share the weddings that are the most beautiful moments of the feast of all human beings, I dream of less selfishness and more fraternity but I am aware that these dreams can only be realized if each one dares to dream and to sea with all his heart to make not only the holy land a better place to live but the whole world as the common home that the common Father has given us.
