In 1964, when Pope Paul VI made his historic pilgrimage to the Holy Land – the first by a Pope since ancient times – he expressed a desire to do something to help the Palestinian people.

It took nearly a decade for that project to take shape. But, in 1973 in Bethlehem, the first Catholic university in the Holy Land opened its doors.

Today, Bethlehem University serves around 3,000 students, and sees its mission as contributing “to building a free, peaceful and vibrant Palestine.”

Its Vice-President for Advancement, Br. Jack Curran, FSC, is currently in Rome, for a meeting of aid agencies serving the Eastern Catholic Churches.

He spoke to Vatican News’ Fr. Adrian Danca about the toll that the Israel-Hamas war is exacting on students at BU, and ways that staff are trying to adapt.

 “Extraordinary” difficulties

Br. Curran said that the situation for students at BU has been “really quite difficult for many years”, but that problems have “intensified extraordinarily” since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October last year.

He stressed in particular the lack of ability to enter and leave the West Bank, or move from town to town within it.

To arrive in Bethlehem from Jerusalem, where 40 per cent of BU students live, Br. Jack noted--a journey of just eight kilometers--was “impossible for five months.”

New methods

Br. Curran said that this situation had forced faculty and staff at Bethlehem University to “find new ways to engage the students.”

This meant, he said, focusing on the essentials of their mission: “to provide a human and Christian education to the students”, forming their character and helping make them better citizens.

He said that their goal was to nurture within their students the mindset that “the future is a future of hope.”

Sometimes, he noted, this is quite difficult: “the intensity of the psychological pressure on our students and on our faculty is a great concern.”

For this reason, he said, “We're trying to do what we can to maintain normalcy as best as possible, and to attend to the psychological and academic concerns of our students.”

Prayer and solidarity

Asked how individuals can support the work of Bethlehem University, Br Curran said that there is an “urgent need” for both prayer and concrete solidarity.

Financial gifts, he said, are greatly appreciated, as they help to “upgrade counseling and psychological care” for students, as well as to increase academic support.

“This mission that we have as the only Catholic University in the Holy Land,” Br. Curran concluded, “is amazingly important. It's a great place for the Church to be.”