Mobilisation for the Jubilee was started in May 1995 in Malta, where there was a meeting of the Franciscan Order's Plenary Council, and when, with the approval of the Minister General, the Custos sent out a message to all the friars throughout the world to this effect: "the confreres serving in the Holy Places of Nazareth, Mount Tabor, Cana, Capharnaum, Tabgha (Primacy of Peter), 'Ain Kerem (Visitation and Saint John the Baptist), the Holy Sepulchre, Gethsemane, Bethlehem, Emmaus etc., are insufficient. We need confreres to minister the sacrament of Reconciliation in various languages, we need liturgical animators, guides, pilgrims or simply Religious willing to serve in the different Places in welcoming pilgrims." An appeal which was repeated during a high-level meeting of the Franciscans in Rome, although in fact in the meantime response had been good. This leads to the question of spiritual and pastoral activity in the Holy Places, a problem followed with attention and in its entirety by the Jerusalem Committee.

The Franciscans of the Holy Land first of all made a survey of the Holy Places on the capacity of the buildings, requisites for programming possible celebrations, and on work do be done, restoration, extension, adaptation etc. They decided that work was to begin in Cana and Bethlehem, to make ready, vast covered areas respectively for Galilee and the zone of Jerusalem.

Near the Shrine of the first Miracle there will be a large hall for six or seven hundred people to be used for liturgical functions of the parish while the work of levelling the nave is carried out. The intention is to lower the end of the nave and the apse (a chance for excavation entrusted to Fr Eugenio Alliata ofm, professor of New Testament archaeology at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum). When the work in the church is completed the hall will be available for the Jubilee.

The same will happen at Bethlehem, where restoration work will begin on a vast hall dating to the times of the Crusades, which is without columns and is underneath the Franciscan friary. It can hold more than six hundred people and will serve the parish needs for the time necessary to re-pave the Church of Saint Catherine (adjacent to the Basilica of the Nativity), and then be available for the Jubilee period.

The problem of large halls for meetings, liturgies, seminars, with good parking space, is much felt by the Christians of the Holy Land, especially in the Jerusalem area.

There is also a lack of areas for out-door events or celebrations, which should be filled by Shepherds' Field and the St Peter in Gallicantu amphitheatre which will serve for ceremonies not expected to draw very large crowds. Regarding open-air events for the Jubilee, for young people unable to be accommodated in the Franciscan "Casanove", the Franciscans of the Holy Land have this initiative: two camping sites, respectively in the beautiful garden area of the Shrine of the Primacy of Peter at Tabgha, on the shores of Lake Tiberias; and in the area of the Shrine of Shepherds' Field, south of Bethlehem. Two places near enough to Nazareth and Jerusalem, traditional poles of Holy Land Pilgrimages.

Important too is the Franciscans' programme to improve the Gethsemane Hermitage. For several years now, thanks to the initiative and dedication of Fr Giorgio Colombini ofm, it offers accommodation in small, modern, shady cells on the edge of a vast garden, to individual pilgrims or mini-groups wishing to live in silence and prayer the experience of encountering the Holy City. In view of the Jubilee, the work of fitting-out more cells and building new ones will be completed.

This same problem has become most urgent for the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, where it is aggravated by a lack of respect on the part of noisy guides and pilgrims and which it is hoped will soon be solved by the three religious authorities responsible: the Greek Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox Patriarchs and the Franciscans of the Holy Land. Fr Nazzaro said that here is a project in hand for a large scale-plan of the Basilica to be placed in the square outside, with explanation in various languages: here the guides will be free to give their talk. Whereas, inside the Basilica silence will be imposed, to permit prayer. We have proposed, he adds, that lay people, Christians of Jerusalem, wearing a uniform, could accompany groups and individual visitors on a silent tour following a compulsory route". This would also help to lessen the Israeli authorities' concern for security.

Of good omen is the resumed collaboration between the two Patriarchs and the Franciscans for the restoration of the Basilica, concretised with the inauguration of the restored dome of the Holy Sepulchre on 2 January 1997.