Saint John Paul II and the Saint James Vicariate

Many ties can be identified that link Saint Pope John Paul II to our little Vicariate in Israel. There are ties that are personal, for example the vacation that Father Karol Wojtyla spent in Belgium with the family of Father Alfred Delmée, later long time parish priest of the kehilla in Jaffa. The two became friends during their studies in Rome. Many years later, Archbishop of Cracow Karol Wojtyla visited the Holy Land and insisted on stopping by to see his friend Father Alfred in the Moadon, the meeting place of the kehilla in Jaffa. A few months later Wojtyla was elected Pope and he invited his old friend to spend some days in the Vatican.

Pope John Paul II made a giant contribution to the progress in relations between Catholics and Jews. It was he who oversaw the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and the Holy See. It was he who first visited a synagogue, the one of Rome, in 1986. It was he who went on pilgrimages to the high places of Judaism and Jewish history, including the Western Wall, the Chief Rabbinate and Yad VaShem in Jerusalem and to Auschwitz. He also took an ongoing interest in the life of the kehillot and among his closest advisors were men close to the kehillot in Israel like Archbishop of Paris Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger and Cardinal Georges Cottier, theologian of the Pope.

Two priests from the kehilla were received separately in audience by Pope John Paul II in 1984: Brother Yohanan Elihai (August 3, 1984) and Father Daniel Rufeisen (November 15, 1984). Both explained to the Holy Father the life of our kehillot and the needs of Hebrew speaking Catholics in Israel. On that occasion, Father Daniel presented the initial text of “Know the Christ,” the catechetical book written by Father Gregor Pawlowski, to the Pope.

In March 2000, Pope John Paul II visited Israel and in his address to the faithful at Korazin, above the Sea of Galilee, he greeted the kehillot.

Pope John Paul II named Father Jean-Baptiste Gourion as auxiliary bishop to the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem on August 14, 2003. To the ordination of Bishop Gourion, on November 9, 2003, the Pope sent Cardinal Roger Etchegaray.

We ask Saint John Paul II to pray for the kehillot of the Saint James Vicariate and for peace in our country.