Church in the Holy Land fights Covid with Sunday school and job opportunities

The Latin Patriarchate and the University of Bethlehem are working together to train catechists and fight against unemployment among young Palestinians.

The lesson Coronavirus pandemic has led to a sharp increase in unemployment, especially among young Palestinians in the Holy Land.

The spiritual formation of young people in the Holy Land is also affected which, according to Church leaders, endangers future generations of Christians.

The two ecclesiastical institutions have signed two collaboration “agreements” to launch professional and catechetical-spiritual formation initiatives for young people from Palestinian ecclesial communities, FIDES reported.

The first “agreement” aims to provide vocational skills to boys and girls and to encourage employment opportunities for the parishes of the Latin Patriarchate and those managed by the Custody of the Holy Land in the West Bank.

The second “agreement” aims to train Christian teachers who teach catechism in Christian schools in the West Bank.

These courses will be given under the supervision of the Catechetical Office of the Latin Patriarchate, in partnership with the Faculty of Religious Studies of the University of Bethlehem.

The various projects launched under the two “agreements” and signed at the end of August will be implemented thanks to the financial support of the Porticus Foundation and the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher.

De La Salle Brother Peter Bray, vice-chancellor of Bethlehem University, said the two agreements are particularly dear to the hearts of the staff of the academic institution founded in 1973.

Bethlehem University, established in Palestine and the only Catholic university in the Holy Land, was born following Pope Paul VI’s historic visit to the Holy Land in 1964.

Bethlehem University will celebrate its Golden Jubilee in 2023.

“As we are about to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding, ‘let’s go back to why Bethlehem University started: to serve the Palestinian people through education,” Elder Bray said in a posted video. by the Christian Media Center in Jerusalem. .