Bethlehem University: a Catholic educational innovation in the Holy Land

Abstract

Bethlehem University in Palestine is something of a miracle. It was the first university to be registered in Palestine and the first, and still the only, Catholic/Christian University in the Holy Land. Its mission is to serve the Palestinian people through education, with clear and explicit values that derive from the Catholic Church. It has survived for almost fifty years despite the range and nature of the challenges during those turbulent times!. It was established, and continues, as a joint venture between the Holy See and the De La Salle Christian Brothers and is, therefore, embedded in the work of the Church in the Holy Land and must be responsive to the mission of the Church there. It is, indeed, a Catholic institution in the Holy Land.