Catholic World News News Feature
Israel to ease visa restrictions for Catholic clerics January 14, 2008
Israel has set a new policy expediting the process of granting visas to Catholic priests and religious, the country's embassy to the Holy See has announced.
The Israeli government has agreed to give high priority to visa requests from Catholic Church workers from Arabic countries. The new policy is intended to address the problems of priests and religious who travel frequently between Israel and Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the Palestinian territories. Many of these clerics have been forced to apply for an entry visa to return after each trip outside Israel.
The visa restrictions were a major problem for the Latin-rite Catholic patriarchate of Jerusalem, which covers territory in Jordan and Cyprus. Many of the priests and seminarians of the patriarchate are natives of Arab countries, who have been subject to the strict visa requirements. A similar situation has handicapped the activities of Eastern Catholic churches in the Holy Land.
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