I might be studying in Israel and

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scapularkid8

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… would I be sinning if I decided to go there if the city where I would be studying abroad (Beer Sheba in The Negev) does not have a Catholic Church (which I somewhat doubt there isn’t going to be one)? I wouldn’t be able to make Sunday Obligation and besides that, I’d miss the amazing opportunity of meeting Israeli Catholics!! I’ve contacted the appropriate people at the university and they’re being very helpful and said they’d look in to if there are any Catholic churches in Beer Sheba that I could worship in, but they said there might not be. (They wouldn’t know off the top of their heads because they’re Jewish :doh2: 😃 ) I could always make a “church commute” to Tel Aviv which is about an hour from Beer Sheba and find a Catholic church that is bound to be there. If all else fails, I could drive to Jerusalem every Sunday/Saturday night (for the Vigil).

I just don’t want to go if I’d be putting myself in mortal sin by choosing a location where I’d not have easy access to a church. Also, (somewhat related) if I’m in the midst of traveling on a weekend and I don’t get a chance to get to Mass did I sin because I chose an itinerary that didn’t allow me to attend Mass?
 
This isn’t really answering your question, but there definitely is at least one Catholic church in Tel Aviv (Jaffa actually, but one blends into the other) about 20mins walk down the beach from the main shopping centre/fancy hotel area of Tel Aviv. It’s very easy to find if you’re on foot as it’s next to a big open paved square on the cliff top over the port. St Peter’s, I think it is called, and it’s very Spanish-looking. Mass was mostly in Spanish when I was there, with the only English Mass on Sunday. I went on Saturday night as I was working and the working week is Sunday - Thursday, but with the printed Spanish/English Mass sheets, it wasn’t a problem.

But don’t despair - there were more churches in Israel than I expected there to be and as Beersheva is a university town I’ll be surprised if there isn’t Mass on offer somewhere.

As I understand it, there is an automatic dispensation from the Sunday obligation if necessary travel means you can’t get to Mass. I spent two Sundays in the air / in Dubai airport once and while there were male and female prayer rooms there certainly wasn’t any opportunity for Mass! I was travelling for work purposes though, it wasn’t that I just decided to take a drive in the country somewhere where there wasn’t a church.
 
Also remember you don’t have to go to a Roman Catholic Church. You could go to any Eastern Catholic Church to fulfill your obligation. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were an Eastern Catholic Church of some kind near where you are going.
 
Lazerlike42 said:
Also remember you don’t have to go to a Roman Catholic Church. You could go to any Eastern Catholic Church to fulfill your obligation. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were an Eastern Catholic Church of some kind near where you are going.
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I believe that in northern parts of Israel, there are many Maronite (Lebanese) and Melkite (Greek) Catholic churches that any Catholic may attend.
 
Yeah, I’m aware I could attend an Eastern church (I love the Liturgy!), I don’t know if the people at Ben Gurion Univ. who are currently church-searching for me know that though…:rolleyes:
 
Wow! That’s just what I was looking for! Thanks! Israel here I come 😃
 
I personally think that it is not a sin to take a job or opportunity in a non-Catholic country. There have been Catholic explorers, travelers to distant lands, soldiers, etc. You can still do your best, perhaps travel once a month to Mass. Israel is a geographically small nation and there are Catholic churches I’m sure in other towns!

This sounds like a wonderful opportunity for you! You can carry out your private devotions and always attend an Eastern Orthodox Church or some other substitute, or pray the Liturgy of the Hours privately. Perhaps your priest can give you more advise.
 
I have lived in Israel for almost three years and can tell you that this may be the Holy Land but finding a Latin Catholic Mass in English is not that easy. According to my Diplomatic Spouses Handbook, there is a Mass in Hebrew at St. Abraham Church at 51 Ha Shalom Street in Beersheva at 6:15 p.m. on Sunday evening. I have never been there so I can’t tell you anything about it. There are two Catholic churches in Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv, St. Peter’s, overlooking the sea, and St. Anthony’s. I prefer St. Peter’s which has an English Mass at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, and a Polish Mass at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday evening (the last Mass in the city!). St. Anthony’s has an English Mass on Sunday morning at 10:00. They seem to what ever they want at St. Anthony’s unlike St. Peter’s which is very orthodox. For example, we got up at 5:00 in the morning on Ascension Thursday to get to 6:30 a.m. Mass, since the feast of Ascension is a Holy Day of Obligation in Israel. St. Anthony’s had the only Mass which fit into my husband’s work schedule, so we went there. When we arrived, the priest told the congregation that the Mass for St. Joseph the Worker was going to be said since St. Joseph didn’t have his feast in March! They were going to celebrate the Ascension on Sunday. That was not what was done in this diocese. When we went to Mass this evening, the Mass for the Seventh Sunday after Easter was celebrated so we did not get to celebrate the Feast of the Ascension liturgically. The Filipino community is the largest English speaking Catholic community in Israel, and their tastes seem to dominate. They seem to prefer “Glory and Praise” type music, so be prepared for this. Another problem with Jaffa is the horrible traffic. We live in a suburb north of Tel Aviv, and there have been times when it took us one hour and twenty minutes to get to Jaffa for Mass. Remember Sunday is a regular work day in Israel. Their weekend is Friday and Saturday. My advice to you is to go to Jerusalem on Saturday evening for the 6:30 p.m. vigil Mass at the Notre Dame Center on Paratrooper Road, near the New Gate. It is run by the Legionaries of Christ, and is also a hotel for pilgrims. The Legionaries are perfectly orthodox, are wonderful preachers, and will hear your confessions in English. They also have a restaurant where you can get a great cheese burger. After you have been in Israel for a while, you will really appreciate that! We are leaving this summer, so if you decide to come to Israel we won’t get to meet you. If you attend this Mass at the Notre Dame Center, you will meet an interesting group of expats and Israeli Catholics, and there are not many Israeli Catholics who are not Arabs. We have never missed a Sunday or Holy Day Mass since we have been in Israel. If you are really serious, you won’t mind attending Mass in another language when it is impossible to make it to the English Mass. I encourage you to come to Israel. It is a beautiful country, and nothing can compare to visiting the places where our Lord actually lived.
 
Marysann,

you would know better than I, having lived in Israel for three years, but isn’t finding much of anything that isn’t in Hebrew going to be rather difficult? In other words, if he goes to St. Abraham’s and hears the Hebrew Mass, won’t that just be one more thing in Hebrew that he’ll have to get used to?

This is the report of a friend of my father’s who lived in Israel, but perhaps I am wrong. 🤷
 
The language issue doesn’t bother me at all. I’m quick with languages, it’s actually one of my gifts and I love hearing a different language regardless to I’m sure it wouldn’t be a terrible experience if I had to go to Mass in Hebrew or Spanish or Arabic or Greek all of which I have some exposure to. I wouldn’t mind going to Jerusalem, but I’d have to find a car or a bus or something to get there or to Tel Aviv. My best bet is probably staying with the Hebrew Catholics in Beersheva and go to Jerusalem for the big stuff like Christmas or Easter (if I’m there for those at all).
 
Lazerlike42. actually, most of the Masses are in Arabic. There are very few non-Arab Israeli Catholics. Many of them also speak English, and attend English language Masses because they feel uncomfortable with Arabs. You can also find Masses in French, Italian, German and other European languages.
 
Marysann said:
Lazerlike42. actually, most of the Masses are in Arabic. There are very few non-Arab Israeli Catholics. Many of them also speak English, and attend English language Masses because they feel uncomfortable with Arabs. You can also find Masses in French, Italian, German and other European languages.
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Oh, I wasn’t referring to Masses. I was referring to everything.
 
Lazerlike42, it is not necessary to know Hebrew to function is Israel. It helps, of course, but it is not necessary. My husband was not required to learn Hebrew for his U. S. government job here. English is taught in Israeli schools starting at an early age. All of the Israelis we meet speak English. Restaurant menus are in English. There are several English language newspapers. All of the road signs are in English, and we joke that if we get to a place where the signs are in Hebrew and Arabic only, we shouldn’t be there! However, many of the grocery store employees seem to be Russian immigrants so my husband uses his Russian when we shop! Masses in Israeli Catholic Churches which don’t belong to foreign religious orders are usually in Arabic because almost all Israel Catholics are Arabs. As was mentioned in a previous post, there is a small Hebrew Speaking Vicariate here, but this is very sensitive because the Israeli government is very sensitive to any suggestion of proselytizing by other religions. (The Catholic Church is very careful about this, but periodically Protestant ministers are deported.) Remember Israel is a Jewish state. To emigrate to Israel, a person must meet government set criteria for being Jewish. The families of today’s Arab Christians lived here before the formation of the State of Israel in 1948. The few non-Arab Israeli Catholics I know are pretty quiet about their faith when around Jewish Israelis.
 
That’s an interesting topic…

I hope I get to use my Arabic though since that’s the primary reason I’m looking at studying in the Middle East. Is it encountered daily? Would I have the opportunity to use it on a regular basis? I wouldn’t want to loose it while I’m there.
 
Marysann said:
Lazerlike42, it is not necessary to know Hebrew to function is Israel. It helps, of course, but it is not necessary. My husband was not required to learn Hebrew for his U. S. government job here. English is taught in Israeli schools starting at an early age. All of the Israelis we meet speak English. Restaurant menus are in English. There are several English language newspapers. All of the road signs are in English, and we joke that if we get to a place where the signs are in Hebrew and Arabic only, we shouldn’t be there!
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I was only there for a month but I found the same thing. I came across only two people (a hotel chambermaid and a taxi driver) who didn’t speak any English. The first phrase you need to learn is “Anglit, bevakashar” (English please)! By the time English was fizzling out on the road signs, we were far enough into the outskirts to be getting outside our comfort zone. It didn’t cause us any problems at all.
 
Scapularkid8, you will probably use Hebrew more than Arabic. Most (not all) of the institutions of higher education here conduct classes in Hebrew, although I have read that often the text books are in English because Hebrew texts are not available for many academic subjects. To which school are you applying? I read an interesting article in one of the local English language papers last week, which said that Israeli Arabs are loosing their connection with other Palestinian Arabs because they are loosing their Arabic language. There are large numbers of Arabs living in areas such as the Galilee, and Hebrew in creeping into their Arabic. I guess it much be a situation like that of Spanish speaking people in American, and the development of “Spanglish.” Our son has studied Arabic for years, and tried to use it Jerusalem, where their are also many native Arabic speakers. He became very frustrated because they always answered him in English! I don’t know how many Arabic speakers there are in the Negev, but I am sure their are Arab restaurants because Israelis love Arab food!
 
I’m applying to a program at Ben Gurion University. If I’m not able to use it that much, I hope I’ll at least be able to continue studying it.

…I still have to convince my mom that it’s, for the most part, safe to be going there.
 
You can assure your mother that it is safe to live in Israel. (I hope I don’t have to eat my words because this week marks the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel, and all sorts of threats have been made to disrupt the celebrations.) As long as you stay out of the West Bank and Gaza, you should be safe. When you get to Israel be sure to register at the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, so that you will be advised by e-mail if any warnings are issued. The Israeli government has the terrorist situation pretty much under control. You would be in more danger from reckless drivers than terrorists.
 
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