February 15, 2006
Father Elias Chacour has been appointed as the new archbishop of the Galilee. The appointment was made by delegates from the Vatican and the Synod of the Greek Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch meeting in the Lebanese capital Beirut. The appointment makes Chacour, the head of an education centre with 4,000 students in the Galilee town of Ibillin, the most senior cleric of the Greek Catholic Church in the Holy Land. The church, with a flock of about 55,000, is 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". Chacour was born in 1939 in the village of Biram in Upper Galilee. He is the first archbishop who holds Israeli citizenship. His jurisdiction will include all Greek Catholic communities from the costal city of Hadera northwards. Chacour has already been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize twice.
