Opening of Year of Faith in the Catholic Church in the Holy Land


On Sunday, October 28, 2012, on the occasion of the Feast of Mary Queen of Palestine, the Catholic Bishops of the Holy Land invited the faithful to come to Deir Rafat, the Marian shrine, in order to celebrate the opening of the Year of Faith.

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Thousands of faithful from all parts of the Holy Land gathered for a solemn mass in honor of Mary Queen of Palestine (Sayyidat Filastin) at Deir Rafat, near Beit Shemesh. The mass was celebrated by retired Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah, replacing Patriarch Fouad Twal, who is Rome, at the Synod of the New Evangelization. Concelebrating with the Patriarch were many of the Catholic bishops of the Holy Land: Greek Catholic Archbishop Elias Shakour from Galilee, Maronite Archbishop Moussa al-Hage, Syrian Catholic Bishop Pierre Melki Mourad and four of the Vicars of the Latin Patriarch, Bishop Boulos Marcuzzo from Nazareth, Bishop William Shomali from Jerusalem, Archbishop Maroun Lahham from Amman and Father David Neuhaus, responsible for Hebrew speaking Catholics. In addition, present were also retired Bishop Kamal Bathish, the former Vatican ambassador Archbishop Antonio Franco, Archbishop Coakly from Oklahoma City in the USA, Father Charles Galichez, Abbot of the Benedictines in Abu Ghosh and Mgr. Waldemar Sommertag, Vatican charge d’affaires.

The solemn mass and traditional procession included different rituals, special prayers and songs for the opening of the Year of Faith. Among the vast crowd there were also representatives of the Hebrew speaking kehillot from Haifa, Tiberias and Jerusalem. The priests responsible for the kehillot of Jerusalem and Haifa concelebrated the mass. In his homily, Archbishop Maroun emphasized that the Christians of the Holy Land must be even more people of faith than in other lands because they are the compatriots of Jesus. He asked the Virgin to pray for us in this Year of Faith. The seminarians of Beit Jala animated the mass with their singing and the faithful joined them with fervor in singing many of the traditional songs in honor of Mary in Arabic.

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