Arab Christians can help Jews, Palestinians reconcile, says priest

Published: 2005-06-21

DETROIT (CNS) -- Israel's tiny Christian minority is in a unique position to promote reconciliation between Jews and Palestinians in the nation, but needs help to do so effectively, said a Melkite Catholic priest from Galilee during a visit to the Detroit area. "I hope there will be some motivated Christians who would care for the survival of Christianity in the Holy Land, and its important role between the Muslim minority and the Jewish majority, because we Christians represent the voice of moderation," said Father Elias Chacour, founder of the Mar Elias Educational Institutions in Ibillin, Israel. Father Chacour was in Michigan in early June to receive an honorary doctorate from the Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Detroit, to speak at an Ann Arbor church and to attend a Grosse Pointe fund-raiser for his schools, which include a grade school, high school, teacher training center, technical school and now a branch of the University of Indianapolis. As with Catholic schools the world over, his schools are not just for Catholics, he said. Of the 4,500 students attending the schools, 32 percent are Christians, 57 percent are Muslims, and the rest are Jewish and Druze, a small sect related to Islam whose members are found in Lebanon and northern Israel. "We are the voice of moderation, but we are such a low voice -- it's whispering, it's not reaching the ears of others. Through these projects, we might have a better hearing among the Muslims and among the Jews," Father Chacour told The Michigan Catholic, newspaper of the Detroit Archdiocese.

Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .