Bishop Michael Martin joins organizers at a benefit for Holy Family Hospital of Bethlehem, which cares for the vulnerable in the Holy Land. Order of Malta Ambassador to Palestine Michele Bowe presents Father Christian Cook, St. Pius X’s pastor, with a gift. (Photo provided by Mary Ann Luedtke) GREENSBORO — Just a few weeks before celebrating the birth of Christ, people gathered at St. Pius X Church to raise funds for some of the most vulnerable infants in the world.
The Dec. 7 event benefited the Holy Family Hospital of Bethlehem Foundation and was hosted by the Federal Association of the Order of Malta.
Holy Family Hospital in Bethlehem provides medical care and hope for families throughout the Holy Land. In 1989 St. John Paul II entrusted the care of Holy Family Hospital to the Order of Malta. The order restored and reopened the shuttered general hospital in Bethlehem and has been managing it ever since.
Funds raised from the benefit dinner will be used to purchase life-saving equipment such as ventilators and incubators, NICU care, mobile medical units, medical residencies and medical student scholarships.
Now this state-of-the-art maternity and neonatal critical care center – located 1,500 steps from where Jesus was born – serves poor and at-risk women, infants and children of all faiths. This past year, 4,223 babies were born there.
“Last month we delivered 10 babies born before 28 weeks and eight others were born with sepsis. Without Holy Family Hospital, these babies would not survive,” the foundation’s president, Ambassador Michele B. Bowe, told supporters at the fundraising event.
Herself a dame of the Order of Malta and the ambassador of the order to Palestine, Bowe was welcomed to St. Pius X Church on Dec. 6 with a live Nativity play and festival. The next day,
Bishop Michael Martin offered Mass before the dinner, which was attended by 121 members of the Order of Malta, sponsors and clergy. The event raised $300,000 with 94% of proceeds going directly to Holy Family Hospital.
The mothers, babies, and families of Bethlehem will benefit greatly from the generosity of all who attended the dinner.
St. Pius X Parish has partnered with the Holy Family Hospital Foundation of Bethlehem for several years in what has become a meaningful endeavor to bring joy and hope to a region that is in desperate need of such things.
“Partnership is the nature of the Church,” Bishop Martin told those gathered, emphasizing that God wants us to continue to open our hearts to giving to others.
That partnership is essential since Holy Family Hospital is subsidizing its services by 75 percent due to escalating poverty in the war-torn region. No one is turned away – in keeping with Catholic tradition, everyone is cared for regardless of their ability to pay.
“Hope is delivered a dozen times a day at our hospital in Bethlehem,” said Bowe, “thanks to our partnership with the Diocese of Charlotte’s Mission Cooperative Appeal and the generosity of St. Pius X parishioners.”
Bowe thanked St. Pius X’s pastor, Father Christian Cook, for making the hospital fundraiser a priority, particularly during one of the busiest times of the year.
While the situation in the Holy Land seems bleak, Bowe emphasized that Bethlehem clings to hope. Holy Family Hospital not only brings hope to the poor in Bethlehem but also provides hope for Christianity to remain in Bethlehem.
“They are a Christmas people,” she said, noting that the Blessed Virgin Mary stands tall in the form of a Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal watching over the hospital.
“I credit her for the everyday miracles in Bethlehem.”
— Georgianna Penn
