|
|
 |
|
CNS Story:
|
ISRAEL-SCHOOLS Jun-26-2006 (590 words) xxxi
Funding agencies meet to discuss Catholic schools in Israel
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Catholic agencies funding projects in the Middle East met in late June to discuss ways to increase the number and impact of Catholic schools in Israel.
The discussion focused on the schools both as a resource for strengthening Israel's small Catholic community and for promoting tolerance and peaceful coexistence, said Msgr. John D. Faris of the U.S.-based Catholic Near East Welfare Association and the Pontifical Mission for Palestine.
Msgr. Faris participated in the June 19-23 meeting of the Vatican coordinating body of church funding agencies for Eastern churches, known by its Italian acronym, ROACO.
The discussion focused particularly on the 23 Catholic schools serving 17,000 students in Galilee, he said.
Like the other Catholic schools in Israel, he said, the student bodies are as much as 50 percent or 60 percent non-Catholic. Depending on the village where the school is located, the students include Muslims, Druze and Jews.
Strengthening the Catholic identity of the schools is not seen as something standing in opposition to promoting respect for other religions, Msgr. Faris said.
"To be a good Catholic means to be a tolerant, compassionate person," he said.
The schools are concerned not just with maintaining a Christian presence in Israel, he said, but also with ensuring the Catholic students "get a good education and grow up to be good Christians. If they can do that, the institutions will take care of themselves."
ROACO also spent two days with leaders of Bethlehem University, which is run by the Christian Brothers. Some two-thirds of its students are Muslim, and more than half of the students are women
"Despite the political turmoil, they had a good school year with relatively few closures" due to violence in the area, he said.
Money is a serious problem, however, especially with Western governments cutting off funds to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority and with restrictions placed on transferring money into Palestinian banks.
Even though the Palestinian government was able to contribute only $175,000 of the $688,000 it had pledged to the university for 2005-2006, Msgr. Faris said, "the school is very proud of the fact that it never missed a payroll," unlike the majority of employers in the territories.
"Bethlehem University cannot raise tuition with the unemployment situation the way it is," he said.
"They face turmoil and trials, but they are used to it -- you grow up in a crazy family, you learn to get around it," Msgr. Faris said.
ROACO also discussed the situation of Christians living in Iran and heard reports from some Iranian church representatives.
Msgr. Faris said that except for the fact that the Catholic population is down below 7,000 faithful -- in 2004, the Vatican had estimated there were 10,000 Catholics in the country -- the discussion and the identity of the representatives were being kept confidential.
Earlier, Father Leon Lemmens, secretary-general of ROACO, told Vatican Radio the discussion was intended to help the funding agencies know more about the challenges facing the shrinking Latin, Armenian and Chaldean Catholic communities in Iran.
"In the past few decades, many Christians -- especially young people -- have left the country, and the church is facing many difficulties just because of the concrete numbers," Father Lemmens said.
"Then there are the limitations placed on proclaiming the Gospel," he said. "For example, it is not permissible to teach catechism in the language of the Iranian people or to celebrate Mass in their language, Farsi."
"Christians are forced to live a bit in a ghetto," he said.
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250
|
|
|
|
