Catholic Church in Israel
overview of the role of the Catholic Church in Israel
The Catholic Church in Israel (Hebrew: הכנסייה הקתולית; Arabic: الكنيسة الكاثوليكية في إسرائيل; Latin: Catholicae Ecclesiae in Israel) is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, in full communion with the Holy See in Rome.
A number of institutions and organizations serve the Catholic community. The Melkite Church serves the largest number of Catholics. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem is the main Roman Catholic institution in Israel, and it is responsible for the pastoral care of Roman Catholics in Israel, Palestine, and Jordan. The patriarchate has a number of parishes, schools, and hospitals in the region, and it also operates the Terra Sancta Museum in Jerusalem, which showcases the history and culture of the Holy Land.
The Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land is a Catholic religious order that is responsible for the care of the holy shrines in the Holy Land, such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The Salesian Mission is another Catholic religious order that operates in Israel, particularly in the area of education and youth ministry.
In addition to these institutions, there are a number of Catholic organizations and charities that operate in Israel, such as the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, which provides humanitarian assistance to Christians and other minority communities in the Middle East, and the Catholic Relief Services, which works on issues such as poverty, education and health.
Overview
At the start of the 21st century there were approximately 200,000 Christians in Israel and the Palestinian territories, representing about 1.5% of the total population. The largest Catholic Churches included 64,400 Greek Melkite Catholics, 32,200 Latin Catholics, and 11,270 Maronite Catholics.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Catholic Church in Israel” as overview of the role of the Catholic Church in Israel. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as overview of the role of the Catholic Church in Israel. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1187386. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Catholic Church in Israel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.