Fouad Twal

The pastoral letter by Msgr Twal, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, on the occasion of the Canonization of Blessed Marie-Alphonsine (1847-1927) and Blessed Mary of Jesus Crucified (1846-1878)

In 1854 the first school of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem was created. Today there are forty-five schools in Jordan, Palestine and Israel, with over twenty-thousand pupils and a staff of two-thousand people. A reality of extraordinary commitment and testimony to the dramatic situation in the region.

In the occupied territories there has been a process that cannot be defined with the usual terms of 'backwardness' or 'poverty', and which in reality has impeded the formation of productive forces and has undermined the economic potential of the population.