Giacomo Beltritti

Portrait of Giacomo Beltritti (Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem)

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

Life

He came to the Holy Land in 1926 , where he studied at the Latin Patriarchal Seminary in Bait Jala . He was ordained a priest on April 15, 1933 . After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and after the occupation of the West Bank with East Jerusalem in 1967, he helped Palestinian refugees .

Pope Paul VI appointed Belritti on September 21, 1965 as coadjutor patriarch of Jerusalem and titular bishop of Cana . On October 10th of the same year the Patriarch of Jerusalem , Alberto Gori OFM , donated him episcopal ordination ; Co-consecrators were Mikhayl Assaf , Erzeparch of Petra and Philadelphia , and Hanna Kaldany , Auxiliary Bishop in Jerusalem.

After Gori's death on November 25, 1970, Beltritti succeeded him as Patriarch. In this position he was head of the Roman Catholic Church in Israel , the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip , Jordan and Cyprus for 17 years . During this time he encouraged many young Palestinians to become priests and expanded the Catholic school system.

On December 11, 1987, Pope John Paul II accepted Beltritti's age-related resignation. He was succeeded by Michel Sabbah , the first Palestinian to hold this post. Belritti then taught religion at the church school in Deir Rafat , where he lived in the local monastery .

He died while visiting Jerusalem.

Web links

Commons : Giacomo Beltritti  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry on Giacomo Beltritti on catholic-hierarchy.org ; accessed on December 1, 2016.

predecessor	Office	successor
Alberto Gori OFM	Patriarch of Jerusalem 1970–1987	Michel Sabbah
Alberto Gori OFM	Grand Prior of the Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem 1970–1987	Michel Sabbah