Beirut, Lebanon, Feb 8, 2006 / 22:00 pm
The Vatican and the Synod of the Greek Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch, who met Wednesday in Beirut, appointed Father Elias Shakur archbishop of the Galilee.
The appointment makes Shakur, the dynamic head of an educational empire with 4,000 students in the Galilee town of Ibillin, the most senior cleric of the Greek Catholic Church in the Holy Land, with a flock of about 55,000, the single largest Christian community in Israel.
"I plan to work for reconciliation and dialogue among the three religions of the Holy Land," Chacour told The Jerusalem Post. "I hope to be a moderating voice in the conflict that has spilled too much blood."
Elias Shakur was born November 29, 1939 in the village of Biram in Upper Galilee in Arab Palestine.