Pope Benedict XVI Center:
On Thursday 1/3/2007 our roman catholic in Nazareth parish celebrated putting the cornerstone of the new Pastoral Center which was named of Pope Benedict XVI.
The celebration of the foundation stone:
This celebration was held due to the generous donation made by the citizens of southern Germany, where the following Alcardial Vetere, the Archbishop of Munich, accompanied by six of bishops appointed in Germany. They were welcomes by rev. father Pierre Patista Petsabala, guard of the Holy Land, and Bishop Paul Marcotso, Deputy of Jerusalem's Patriarch, and parish Priest Father Maroun Yunnan, in addition to the public at large from the parish and the people of Nazareth.
This event has received generous coverage of the know German television networks, in addition to a group of foreign and local journalists.
Cardinal Vetere opened the celebration by removing the cover of the corner stone accompanied with short prayer.
Donation from Germany:
in September of 2006, in his first travel outside the Vatican after becoming the pope His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, visited the city of Regensburg His hometown, and the Bavarian parish in the neighboring southern Germany. During his visit, brothers in Jesus from Munich Regensburg and Baco, donated a sum of one Million euros to His Holiness which was dedicated to help the Christians of the Holy Land for the world's Christians to feel closer to them, and to maintain their presence in the land of Jesus, and to build a Civilization of Christianity spirit.
In the Month of December 2006, Archbishop Paul Josef Cordes, the President of the Pontifical Council "one heart" visited Nazareth. He was welcomed by the guard of the Holy Land rev.
Father Pitsabala, Father Ricardo Jostus, the president of the Franciscan convent in Nazareth, Father Maroun younan, former parish priest and members of the parish, in addition to a group of journalists, the television of the Vatican, "tele pachi".
After praying a common prayer in the Cave of the Annunciation the Grotto Church, on behalf of His Holiness the Pope, he presented this generous donation to the guard of the Holy Land, who dedicated this donation for the construction of the new center of the Catholic parish in Nazareth entirely.
Rev. father Pitsabala agreed to the proposal of Father Maroun to name the new center after Pope Benedict XVI, in recognition of his love for the Holy Land and its people.
How we got to this Stage?
For a long time Franciscan parish priests saw that to serve the growing number of Roman Catholic parish in the City of Nazareth they need a center and to achieve this goal, father Arturo Vazeturo parish priest in the nineties, in cooperation with father Halim Nagim, the Solicitor General to guard the Holy Land at the time gave the members of the parish the status of St. Anton so they can use it to do the various parish activities.
At the same time, father Arturo started making plans and generating ideas for a new pastoral center that the parish could use for its activities. In the late nineties and with Father Maroun becoming the new parish priest, long meeting were held to discuss his subject. when objectives and needs were identified in 2005, a final plan was settled on by engineers from all parties and fine building consisted of three layers was the result of that.
But the Project was postponed because of the lack of an appropriate budget to get started with the project at that time.
At the end of 2006 after the creation of appropriate sources of funding the project was the first on the list to get started and made for parish.
The Goals of the Center:
Providing a place to our beloved parishioners for their activities.
Bringing together the people of the parish within a social frame in the center thought social, recreational and educational activities to strengthen their knowledge of Christianity and religious affiliation among them.
The integration of all age categories in the education recreational and educational activities.
Provide a safe haven for our youth and provide them with the guidance through lectures and seminars on topics useful and different to build and strengthen and consolidate the Christian identity and Christian faith, as well as activities for young people.
|
