Giacomo Giuseppe Beltritti

Giacomo Giuseppe Beltritti ( born December 23, 1910 in Peveragno, † November 1, 1992 ) was a Catholic priest and Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.

Life

He was born in 1926 to the Holy Land, where he studied in Bait Dschala on Latin Patriarchalpriesterseminar. On April 15, 1933 he was ordained a priest. After the establishment of Israel in 1948, after the occupation of the West Bank, with East Jerusalem in 1967, he helped Palestinian refugees.

Pope Paul VI. Beltritti appointed on 21 September 1965 Koadjutorpatriarchen of Jerusalem and titular bishop of Cana. On 10 October the same year he consecrated the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Alberto Gori, OFM, Bishop; Co-consecrators were Mikhayl Assaf, Erzeparch of Petra and Philadelphia, and Hanna Kaldany, Auxiliary Bishop in Jerusalem.

After Goris death on November 25, 1970 Beltritti was his successor as patriarch. In this position, he was for 17 years head of the Roman Catholic Church in Israel, the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, Jordan and Cyprus. During this time, he encouraged many young Palestinians to become priests and built the Catholic school system from.

On 11 December 1987, Pope John Paul II Beltrittis assumed age-related withdrawal. He was succeeded Michel Sabbah, the first Palestinian to hold the post. Then taught Beltritti religion at the church school in Deir Rafat, where he lived in the local monastery. He died during a visit to Jerusalem in his sleep.