La Casa de Laroosh: The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem

Yesterday, I visited my great-uncle (my mum's father's brother) at the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, within the confines of the Old City. He is a priest there and recently - on July 4th - celebrated the 60th anniversary of his vows! He showed me a photo of the day he entered the seminary; he had been only 11 years old. I honestly can't imagine making such a life-altering decision at such a young age.

My visit with my great-uncle was a lot of fun. He took me all around Il Batrachya (the Patriarchate), introduced me to the Sisters of St. Dorothy (Italian sisters who serve the priests - they cooked us an amazing meal), and introduced me to the new Archbishop of Jerusalem, Sa'idna Fuad Twal. He is super-sweet, easy to talk to, and quite funny as well. I embarrassed myself badly in front of him, though. In the States, we address priests as, "Father". In the Arabic language, we use the word, Abuna which translates to "Our Father". I rather unwittingly addressed the Archbishop as, "Abuna Il Mutron" ("Our Father the Bishop"). He is neither Our Father nor is he a bishop, so I missed on both accounts. My great-uncle hastened to correct me; the proper term of address, is "Sa'idna". Fortunately, though, the Archbishop took it really well and was quite understanding.

Chillin'with the Archbishop and my great-uncle.

(If you look closely above my head, you'll see the photo of the Archbishop meeting Pope Benedict XVI.)

I missed the old Archbishop, though. (He recently retired, in accordance with Church law, at the age of 75.) He, too, was really nice, but more importantly had the same speech impediment in Arabic that I do: neither of us can roll our R's, something very necessary in the Arabic language. The difference, however, is that I speak with a heavy, heavy American accent, while he never has. Still, it always heartened me to know that someone of such prominence spoke as I do.
Every time my great-uncle introduced me to anyone whether it was the Archbishop, the German priest, the Italian Sisters or anyone else I met, the introction went like this:

"This Doctora Lara, my niece's daughter, who has come from the States. I baptized her when she was a baby. I'll show you photos later."

Seriously?! Please, God, no! Not naked baby pictures! Fortunately, as best as I know, no one took him up on his offer to view the photos. Phew!

Anyway, speaking of photos, here are a few photos from in and around the Patriarchate:

An alcove dedicated to Our Lady; I thought it was beautiful!