Funding agencies meet to discuss Catholic schools in Israel

Published: 2006-06-26

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.

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