Palestinian Catholic visits Indiana to thank donors for scholarship

Franciscan Father Peter Vasko, left, president of the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land, poses on Sept. 21 at the Archbishop O’Meara Catholic Center in Indianapolis with Zaki Sahlia, a Palestinian Catholic from Israel. Sahlia was visiting the United States to visit with and thank donors to the foundation who made possible college scholarships for himself and other young adult Palestinian Catholics. (Photo by Sean Gallagher)

By Sean Gallagher

Zaki Sahlia is an intelligent, 27-year-old Palestinian Catholic.

With a degree in chemistry and plans to complete classes to receive a law degree, Sahlia wants to work in patent and intellectual property law, and could probably do so in many places around the world, including the United States where many of his cousins live.

But he has chosen to remain in the Holy Land despite the many challenges that he faces there as part of the small minority of Catholics who call the area home.

“This is the place where Christianity was born,” Sahlia said. “So if I say that I am a Christian and I leave the Holy Land, what sense of Christianity do I have? I can’t leave those places.

“I’m working 10 minutes from the Holy Sepulchre. I’m an hour’s drive from Nazareth. To leave those places, even for money, is not worth it.”

Sahlia recounted his hopes and dreams for himself and the Church in the Holy Land during a recent trip to Indianapolis. He came to the United States to visit and thank supporters of the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land (FFHL), which provided scholarships for him to study chemistry and law at universities in Israel.

“I’m very glad that I got the scholarship,” Sahlia said. “Even if I thanked every day the people who gave me this scholarship, it wouldn’t be enough. It’s changing my future and my family’s future.”

Sahlia needed a scholarship for his college studies because his father had a debilitating stroke when Sahlia was 8.

As a child, Sahlia received tuition assistance from the FFHL to attend one of the Franciscans’ Terra Sancta Schools near his home in Jaffa, Israel.

Franciscan Father Peter Vasko, president of the FFHL, said the foundation has provided college scholarships for Catholics in the Holy Land since 1996. For this academic year, 25 scholarships were awarded.

The foundation gives scholarships to Palestinian Catholics to help them find jobs that make it economically feasible to stay in the Holy Land and keep the Church there alive.

“None of them have left [the Holy Land]. This is the key,” Father Peter said. “They sign a contract that they’ll stay for three years after they receive their degree. Yet, none of all of those graduates has left [after that period].”

The funds for the scholarships come from donors to the FFHL, many of whom live in Indiana.

“For me, it’s a joy bringing somebody [like] Zaki here and to tell the people what they have done for him, and asking for others to help the remaining students who are still there,” Father Peter said.

Sahlia and other students like him are building a brighter future for the Church in the Holy Land, not only by earning professional degrees, but also by handing on the faith to the next generation.

He helps lead a youth group at his home parish, and also serves as a catechist. And he keeps in touch with other scholarship winners, and knows that they do the same.

“Most of them share my story,” Sahlia said. “They had a difficult economic situation in their families. They have good jobs now in society. They’re more productive for the Christians in the Holy Land. Two of my friends work in youth groups in other parishes. They’re trying to help them in schools and in [learning] skills.”

He and fellow young adult Catholics who have received FFHL scholarships are motivated to be active in the Church because they know so well how they have been blessed.

“God has given me a gift,” Sahlia said. “And this gift came through the scholarship. I will not forget this gift. So I’m trying to give back to help my Church, my people, to help them stay there.”

(To learn more about the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land, log on to www.ffhl.org.) †