“This is perhaps the only place in the world where Arabs and Israelis, Russians and Ukrainians pray together”: this is how Father Piotr Zelazko described the Vicariate of Saint James for Hebrew-speaking Catholics to the European and North American bishops of the Holy Land Coordination (HLC), who visited the Vicariate’s headquarters in the centre of Jerusalem in a show of solidarity yesterday. Father Zelazko, Patriarchal Vicar since August 2021 – a role previously held by the current Latin Patriarch, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa – is responsible for the pastoral care of the seven communities (Kehillot) that make up the Vicariate, including Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Beer Sheva and Nazareth. The commitment of the Vicariate’s priests and faithful, the vicar explained, is expressed above all in pastoral and catechetical service to the Hebrew-speaking children of migrants and asylum seekers scattered throughout the country. Through the work of many volunteers, the Vicariate organises meetings, summer camps, workshops, celebrations and retreats for them.
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Nourishing faith. “I am very proud”, Father Zelazko said, “to have these Russian-speaking, Ukrainian and Russian communities praying together within our community. What unites us is faith in Jesus”. The Vicariate of Saint James, he added, is committed to the transmission of the faith: “Being a Catholic minority within a predominantly Jewish society is a new experience in the history of the Church. Our mission is to nourish the faith of these small communities, especially children and young people, who live and are integrated within Hebrew-speaking Israeli society”. No less important is “service to the poor and bearing witness to justice and peace. The latter cannot be separated from the values of forgiveness and reconciliation in a context of violence and war such as ours”.
After 7 October. On this point, Father Zelazko reflected on how Israeli society has changed more than two years after 7 October 2023, and on how this “mass tragedy” has affected the lives of the Vicariate’s faithful: “There is a profound lack of trust. Immediately after the Hamas terrorist attack, we no longer saw Arabs moving around Jerusalem, even here on our street. They were all scared, and so were we. Then, slowly, we began to process what had happened, and the first reaction, at least for me, was anger born of fear. I attended many funerals of victims of the attack, because among our faithful there are friends and acquaintances of the affected families. But being a Catholic priest”, he said, “does not automatically free you from feelings of anger and revenge”. Yet time and prayer “help you to stand up again: there is no switch you can press to turn off certain negative feelings, but through prayer you find the strength to speak again of love and reconciliation. And the same has happened in our communities”.
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The same suffering. This process enabled Hebrew-speaking faithful, fully integrated into Israeli society, to become aware that “not everyone in Gaza wants to kill you. In that strip of land, there are also children, women, families, innocent people who are being killed. People, human beings, who have a face and a name. Our suffering is the same as that of these people; pain has no nationality or flag. So, if we hate as the terrorists hate, we will be playing their game, and that will be their victory. We must strive to look at one another as human beings. As Christians”, Father Zelazko reiterated, “we must remain united to show the world that peace is possible. This is what has changed since 7 October: we have become people who need to work hard on our own feelings, so as not to become those who hate others”. “Our Patriarch, Cardinal Pizzaballa”, the vicar emphasised, “encourages us along this path and urges us to create conditions for encounter and dialogue. Peace is stronger than war and revenge. We know that our Hebrew-speaking communities are a tiny minority, just a few hundred faithful in total, but in the Church, numbers do not count. So, when Arabs and Israelis, Russians and Ukrainians pray together in our Kehillot, it is there that peace is born in the name of Jesus”. The visit of the HLC bishops concluded with Mass celebrated in the Vicariate’s chapel and presided over by Bishop Nicholas Hudson, Moderator of the HLC and Bishop of Plymouth.
