St. Andrew Formalizes Ties With Bethlehem Church

By PRISCILLA GREEAR, Staff Writer

Published: September 25, 2003

ROSWELL—In the Bethlehem parish of St. Catherine, 60 percent of the members are unemployed. Many have lost jobs in woodcarving, at hotels and at shrines due to the dramatic decline in tourism. Other Palestinian Christians have lost positions because of the violence and closure of borders from the West Bank and Gaza into Israel.

In April 2002 St. Catherine was under siege when Palestinian soldiers sought refuge there from the Israeli army during a 39-day standoff until a peaceful resolution was found.

“Because of the closing of territories most of the Christians are suffering,” said Father Amjad Sabarra, OFM, St. Catherine’s pastor, speaking at the Church of St. Andrew on Sept. 7.

Amidst the violence of the Holy Land, members of the Roswell church are joining hands and hearts with their Christian brothers and sisters in this 11th century Holy Land parish attached to the Orthodox Church of the Nativity, which tradition holds is the site of Christ’s birth.

Priests of St. Andrew and St. Catherine formed a parochial covenant during a Mass on Sept. 7 to create a sister relationship between the two parishes and provide for spiritual and financial support for the besieged and dwindling Christian population in the birthplace of Christ. The agreement is the first such arrangement between any church in the United States and St. Catherine, the site of annual Christmas Eve Masses broadcast around the world.

The number of Christians in the Holy Land is being “squeezed” out by the fighting over the West Bank, where Bethlehem is, and Gaza Strip territories, Palestinian lands under Israeli occupation. According to the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land, 35,000 Christians now reside in the West Bank and Gaza. An estimated 100,000 Palestinians who reside there have been barred from entering Israel to earn a living since 1996.

And while 115,000 Christians live in Israel, currently 98 percent of the allotted Israeli budget is given to Israeli Jewish citizens.

Holy Land church officials are hoping that the covenant will help to strengthen the Bethlehem parish and support the Franciscan Foundation, which works to stop the exodus by safeguarding basic human rights and supporting the Christian minority.

Foundation director Father Peter Vasco, OFM, said, “We’re not taking sides. We’re just trying to quietly help maintain the Catholic presence in the Holy Land.”

“We’re trying to bring that message of awareness,” he continued. “Now people of St. Andrew’s will have a better understanding of their experience. (The relationship) is going to be deepened and widened.”

Celebrants of the Mass were Father Giovanni Battistelli, OFM, custos of the Holy Land and chairman of the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land, Father Sabarra, Father Abdel-Mashih Fayez-Fahim, OFM, comptroller of the Franciscan Custody, Father Vasko, Msgr. R. Donald Kiernan, vicar general of the archdiocese, and, from St. Andrew’s, Father Frank Richardson, pastor, and Father Adam Ozimek, parochial vicar.

Priests signed the covenant document on the altar, promising to pray for and support one another, and they also blessed a replica of the Bambino Shrine, which contains a hand-carved figure of the Christ child that once rested upon the spot of Christ’s birth and is now kept at St. Catherine’s. Just as the original is placed on the altar for Christmas Eve Mass at St. Catherine, so too will this tradition be observed at St. Andrew.

Father Richardson expressed solidarity with St. Catherine and pledged his parish’s support. “Remember you are never alone. Your people are our people. Greet all our brothers and sisters with a holy kiss and let them know we are their friends.”

In response, Father Sabarra expressed hope that new fruits of peace will grow through the relationship.

“I have desired to come to you for many months. I urge you to join me by your prayers that we, the Christians of Bethlehem, may be delivered. We welcome your friendship and receive you as a sister church,” he said. It is a time “to begin a new relationship between the two parishes, a relationship of prayer, of exchange, of mutual respect between the two parishes in which we’ll try our best to be one beside the other.”

In his homily the Palestinian priest spoke of the problem of “deafness” in the Holy Land where “nobody is hearing the other, each is trying to do his own work, not respecting each other, not hearing each other, because they are afraid of the other … This community is to give us a new life, a new era of prayer, to open the ears of all the powerful people in the Holy Land … to begin to hear the voice of justice and peace,” he said. “We are all gathered here today to pray for peace.”

He spoke of the siege of his parish during which church officials did not take sides but, providing mattresses and food, treated the Muslim Palestinians with the respect that all of God’s children deserve.

Finally he asked God to open their ears to hear and understand “the other” and “to help us to be real disciples and witnesses and to be real peacemakers.”

“We hope in this community God will help us to open our ears and hear his voice in our lives and to produce a new humanity founded on love and justice.”

Ladies of the Holy Sepulchre, wearing black cloaks and veils, and Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, an order that supports the Holy Land, brought forward the offertory gifts.

Closing remarks were made by Father Battistelli. As custos, he is the minister provincial of the order of Franciscan Friars Minor living in the Middle East. He coordinates information about the Holy Land and instills in Christians a sense of care for the sites through study and archeological excavation. He also coordinates and directs the reception of pilgrims at holy shrines, a task given to him by the Holy See.

He said that the covenant represents a bond of love among St. Andrew and “the mother church in the Holy Land” and the Franciscans “that demonstrates the universality of our church.”

In an interview afterward, Father Sabarra, who was born in Jerusalem, spoke of how “Christians are the native people of the Holy Land” but of how so many of his own relatives have left and emigrated to the United States. According to the foundation, in Palestine 65 percent live below the poverty level and the average unemployment rate of Palestinian men is 75 percent.

He said that Christians in the Holy Land rely upon outside support from foundations and parishes to survive. He’s “very happy” to be united with the “good people” of St. Andrew.

“The most important thing is to have the (covenant) relationship between the two parishes,” he said. “In praying and exercising of mutual help, each can offer what can benefit the other.”

One way his parish promotes peace is by holding gatherings between the church’s youth and Israeli teens, where they are able to get to know and respect each other. Fortunately, a good relationship already exists between Christian and Muslim youth, as Bethlehem’s two Catholic schools are 20 to 30 percent Muslim.

While he believes the “problem is occupation” of Palestinian territory, “the only way of finding peace in the Holy Land is to get together and spend time together and have a common foundation,” he continued. “We are praying for peace, when the two will get together and arrive at a solution, where they will sit and talk and dialogue.”

Pointing to a burning candle, he said, “Hope is the last thing to die. We’re hoping, like this little flame, we’ll put out the darkness.”

The Franciscan Foundation is the link through which the covenant relationship was formed. St. Andrew’s parishioner Karen Carroll made a “deeply spiritual” trip to the Holy Land and got to know Father Vasco, originally from Brooklyn, who went on to establish the foundation in 1997. Deeply moved by the pilgrimage, she began supporting his work. In 1999 and 2000 more St. Andrew’s parishioners went on Holy Land pilgrimages, after which members individually began supporting his work.

St. Andrew’s member Daniel Harlin, who made the 2000 pilgrimage shortly before fighting broke out, said that the covenant was established “to bring St. Catherine’s into the fold.”

“We chose them because of their proximity to the Church of the Nativity and we chose them because they’re in dire straits,” he said. “This has really been evident by the siege they underwent in April 2002.”

The foundation supports St. Catherine’s members and other Christians through college scholarships, job opportunities at pilgrimage sites and low-cost housing projects through “the generosity of American Catholics and especially the Archdiocese of Atlanta,” said Father Vasco. They recently built new housing units for 10 Christian families who are graduates of the scholarship program.

“We are focusing on helping young people with no family (in the diaspora). If we can keep these people then it’s better than having no Christians at all. The foundation has done very well, contributing $800,000 to $1 million a year. St. Andrew’s has played a large part in helping the Christians. They have provided several scholarships,” Father Vasco said. “Through (American Catholic) contributions we have given over 60 scholarships to 60 marginalized Christian students, regardless of affiliation, with four universities in the Holy Land.”

In their small hotels for tourists, even though they’re pretty empty, they still pay workers 60 percent of their salaries. “This is the best motivation for young people to stay—education and jobs.”

He said Archbishop John F. Donoghue “has a real personal interest in the people of the Holy Land” and has been “the most supportive of prelates” in this nation.