PARISH OF THE HOLY FAMILY
The Parish is served by three ordained ministers: The Pastor, Fr. Faysal Hijazen, Assistant Pastor Fr. Vincent Nagle, and the transitional deacon, Rev. Christoph Matyssek.
The Latin Rite Catholic Parish, Parish of the Holy Family, includes:
The parish has a school under the direction of the Latin Patriarchate. It was founded in 1858 by Father Julien Bost of the Diocese of Lyon. After the period of the British Mandate, HB Luigi Barlassina expanded it to a faculty of 6 teachers and a student body of one hundred students. Today, the school "Al-Ahliyyah" has approximately 560 pupils aged 3 ½ to 18 years, boys and girls, Muslims and Christians. After graduating from high school students normally then continue on to university studies. Most of these go to Bir Zeit University, located only a few miles outside of Rmallah where the main departments of study are accounting, business, information technology, finance, medicine, and engineering. The parish school in the year 2010-2011, counts among its teachers, a French volunteer of the CCD (Catholic Delegation for Cooperation) who provides courses in French classes equivalent to CM2, 6th and 5th in France, while two American teachers teach English. LiturgyWeekday Mass is celebrated at 6:00 pm, preceded by a recitation of the rosary and then the recitation of vespers included in the mass itself. A brief homily usually follows the Gospel. On Tuesdays, the mass is followed by Eucharistic Adoration until 7:30 pm. The daily mass usually gathers about forty people. On Sunday, the attendance is very large. Masses are at 7 am and 10:15 am. The celebrations are always lively, the choir providing beautiful hymns to the accompaniment of the organ played by a Rosary sister and a parishioner.
Please visit the website of our twinned Parish of the Holy Family. It is written in Arabic and English. |
On August 8, 2010, Father (Abouna in Arabic) Faysal Hijazen succeeds Father Aktham Hijazin, as Pastor. He is back again at the parish of Holy Family where he began his ministry as a priest in 1985. The parish, located in the center of Ramallah, has about 450 families of Latin Rite Catholics, one of the largest parishes in the Diocese of Jerusalem. This diocese includes: Israel, Palestine, Jordan - where Father Faysal is from - and Cyprus. In 2008, Father Aktham estimated that 42,000 Christians from Ramallah are now living in the United USA. All families are affected by the sad phenomenon of emigration. Today in Ramallah, Christians of all denominations and rites combined number less than 10,000. To assist Christian families to remain in the homeland, two residential complexes were built in Ramallah by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem: In 1990, the Patriarchate built a 25 unit residential building near the church. In 1995, it built a 27 unit residential building in Tireh, a suburb of Ramallah. Also in 2007, the parish inaugurated a family area. It gives families a place to come in the evenings to be together, play, listen to music or watch videos. In June, during the World Cup, many spectators and fans come to watch the games on the giant screen set up there. On Sunday, after the Mass, the faithful are invited to take coffee. It is a time of welcome, sharing and friendly meetings. 
The priest has a mission that is at the same time pastoral, sacramental and social. He is listening to everyone, including non-Christians. The contacts between him, the children, the youth and the families are frequent either in the parish during visits to their homes. His place is really to be the "good shepherd" for his people. The rectory is wide open throughout the day. Everyone is free to stop in and say hello, chat, ask for advice, drink a cup of coffee ...