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All photos courtesy of Claire and Allison Prezioso
PROSPECT HEIGHTS – When George Prezioso decided to make a second pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he knew he was traveling with a lady. David Cassato, Ms. Jamie Gigantiello came with friends from the Diocese of Brooklyn.
But the visit was especially meaningful for Prezioso, who has been a Grand Knight of the Holy Sepulcher since 2000, as he was joined by his wife, Claire, and their daughter, Allison.
Precioso first came to Jerusalem in 2009 to receive the Knight’s Shell, the order’s highest decoration. The holy land has been hit hard by the pandemic, losing hundreds of millions of dollars in tourism as pilgrims and pilgrims wanting to see the holy biblical sites stop. Since it was recently opened, the Knights and Ladies of the Holy Sepulchre, who are patrons of holy places and holy shrines, came to this pilgrimage.
Among the highlights of the trip for Prezioso was a visit to the historic biblical site of Capernaum, where Jesus lived after leaving Nazareth. There was also the opportunity to participate in the procession of the knights to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where the crucifixion took place, followed by Mass at the tomb with pilgrims and a visit with the family of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. was born.
Prezioso said he felt at home in spirit, body and soul in the holy land and that he always wanted to return to Jerusalem. He is Msgr. Gigantiello for encouraging him to make another trip and bring his family.
“I know a missionary. Jamie has been since his first assignment and arrival at St. Pat’s in Bay Ridge. He baptized my children and I consider him a very dear friend,” explained Precioso. “When I saw that he was a missionary with him. Cassato was going with the knights, and I knew it would be a very pleasant and spiritual journey. Prezioso was thrilled when his wife, Claire, and daughter, Allison, said they wanted to go along, too.
“I couldn’t wait to explore my Christian roots and follow in the footsteps of Jesus and his disciples,” Allison recalls. “As I entered Jerusalem, I felt a sense of complete peace. I have to swim in the Dead Sea, ride a camel, go to mosque every day and go to the Sea of Galilee, the daughter added.
“And it all felt so unreal, so beautiful and magical. “I’m almost convinced that this day will shine with a different light,” Allison said.
Claire Precioso was thrilled to visit the Holy Land with her husband and daughter and said it was especially meaningful because she and George renewed their wedding vows during the pilgrimage. “Learning about religion in school is one thing, but going there was a rebirth of learning about Christ,” he said. “I was speechless at times, I cried at times, and it was spiritual at its highest level.”
George couldn’t wait to share his experiences of the places he had already visited, but this trip would introduce the Precioso family to George’s cousins Shibley and George Cando, where Shibley owns an antique store in Bethlehem and George runs a gas station. .
While Prezioso was a Roman Catholic, his mother was an Antiochian Orthodox from Damascus, Syria. When his father left Damascus and came to America, his brother settled in Brazil and the other settled in Bethlehem, a city where Christians were dwindling.
In 2022, 40% of Christians living in Israel are Greek Catholic or Melkite, 32% Greek Orthodox, 20% Roman Catholic, and 7% Maronite, according to Palestinian Authority census data.
Shibley Kando explained that the entire Holy Land was not as big as Long Island. “The difficulty here is that there are multiple cultures and two countries in one place,” Kando explained.
“Being a Christian in Bethlehem is different from being a Christian in Jerusalem, Nazareth or Haifa. People there are subject to an organized government that will take care of them,” Kando said.
“When you think about the Christians in Bethlehem, they are the most neglected, the most abandoned, and our worst situation is what we have experienced with our churches during the pandemic,” he said.
Cando credits the Catholic Choice Fund for helping raise funds for Christians in need in the area.
According to a 2020 survey by the Palestine Center for Policy and Survey Research, the Christian population in Bethlehem has declined from 84% in 1922 to 22% in 2007.
According to Kando, in the past few years it has dropped to 18% in the region, and in the last survey conducted in Bethlehem in 2017, less than 1% of Bethlehem was Christian.
Prezioso added that the biggest irony about the situation of Christians in the region was a taxi driver’s comment to him during the trip: “Stuck in the middle, ‘Israelis see us as Arabs, Muslims see us as Christians, we are Christians too.'”
When Precioso found out about his cousins in Bethlehem, they would meet for the first time. After the pilgrimage, Precioso planned to spend a day with them.
“It was to leave early that morning, have lunch in Haifa, visit Mount Qibulma, and then visit my cousins at Kando’s,” Prezioso said. “We arrived when the store was closing, and we finally met up and went out for dinner. It was a great feeling. Especially with my wife and daughter with me, I vomited.
For his part, Kando was very happy to meet his American family. “Meeting them for the first time was very moving and emotional,” Kando said. “It was so nice to meet my cousins in Bethlehem.”
For Allison, it was the perfect end to a life-changing journey. “Meeting my relatives was a wonderful way to end the trip. My cousin Shibley reminded me a lot of my father’s demeanor and the way he left waving his hands in the air. He looked like my dad and they seemed more like brothers than cousins,” Allison explained.
“I knew going on this pilgrimage would be an experience of a lifetime, but I didn’t expect to discover a strong faith within me,” Allison added. “There’s something so profound about feeling so familiar with a place and people I’ve never been to or met before.”
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