Latin Patriarchal Vicariate
Street 6191/3, 16100 Nazareth
Tel: +972 4 6554075
Fax: +972 4 6452416
E-mail: [email protected]
Latin Patriarchal Vicariate
Street 6191/3, 16100 Nazareth
Tel: +972 4 6554075
Fax: +972 4 6452416
E-mail: [email protected]
Today, in Israel, Christians make up around 2% of the population. Most of them live in Galilee; the Galilean localities with the largest Arab Christian populations are Nazareth, Haifa and Shefa’amer. Around 77% of the Christians in Israel are Arab Christians and they constitute 7% of the total Arab population of Israel. Overall, around 13% of these Arab Christians are affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church.
As of today, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem has twelve parishes in Galilee. Some of them are administered by priests of the Latin Patriarchate, while others are administered by Franciscan priests from the Custody of the Holy Land. The parish of Haifa is administered by Carmelite priests. There is also a seminary run by the Neocatechumenal Way (in Korazin), which is affiliated to the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, as a section of the Patriarchal Latin Seminary of Beit Jala.
Over the whole region, the Latin Patriarchate has not only churches, but also schools and centers for socio-educational and sports activities, as well as playgrounds, sports fields and parish houses. Twenty schools are run by the Latin Church in Israel (not including Jerusalem). Some of them are administered by the Latin Patriarchate, while the others are run by the Franciscans and different other religious congregations. There are also two institutions for special education, one in Nazareth, the other in Haifa. All these infrastructures allow the organization and development of liturgical, pastoral and educational activities, which support and unify the Christian communities. They offer an opportunity to serve the society in which we live, witnessing the charity of Christ and spreading a message of peaceful cohabitation.
Together with the Arab Christians, in the territory of the Vicariate of Israel, there are also communities of Hebrew-speaking Catholics, under the authority of the Saint James Vicariate, as well as an important number of migrant workers (Filipinos, Indians, Sri Lankan, Africans, etc.) and asylum seekers (essentially Eritreans and Sudanese), whose pastoral care is entrusted to the Vicariate for Migrants.
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| Patriarchal Vicar for Israel: Mgr Rafic Nahra |
