Quebec City, Canada, Aug 7, 2008 / 06:38 am
Just five weeks after being installed as the new Patriarch of the Latin Church in Jerusalem, His Beatitude Fouad Twal described his experience to CNA as the “top of happiness.” At the same time, he also said that the complex conflict in the Holy Land requires courageous leaders to forge a new mentality of peace in the region, leaders he is still waiting for.
As with any monumental event, the handing over of the Catholic Church’s oldest church from Patriarch Michel Sabbah to Bishop Fouad Twal was not without a certain amount of anxiety and nervousness.
“In the beginning,” now Archbishop Twal recalled, “I felt a bit anxious. But seeing many, many friends just beside me, and the many prayers from bishops’ conferences around the world [that] sent messages to say we are with you and we pray with you; thanks [be to] God I don’t feel alone in this mission.”
“Besides Jerusalem always has a world dimension,” Archbishop Twal said as he explained that he doesn’t carry the burden of leading the Church in the Holy Land all by himself. “The problems are not only for me, they must be for all Christians outside and for the Church. The Church must be involved in finding a solution, involved in helping the Christian community to stay there. And I have asked a lot of bishops to feel co-responsible… everyone must feel that Jerusalem is his own mother Church.”