Page 28 - Holyland Magazing - Catholic Edition 2016

DUC IN ALTUM, Worship and Prayer Center.
In part, I owe my calling to the bad example
of a certain priest. I used to attend Mass in a attended this retreat the Friday before Holy
particular parish near my home. At this parish, Week. At the end of the retreat, on Easter
there were two priests. One priest was very
fervent and pious, the other, not so.
One night, when I was sixteen, I went to
Mass with a friend and during Mass I was
thinking, “Why is one priest like this and the
other priest like that?” I began to imagine how Jerusalem Center?
I would conduct Mass if I were a priest. When
we came out of the church, my friend said to
me, “What’s wrong with you?” So I told him
that during mass I had thought a very crazy
thought, and before I could say more, my
friend said to me, “You thought to become
a priest.”
My parents were both very devout Catholics,
but somehow, I had more confidence in my
mother about these things, and so I told her
what I was thinking. She said, “Just go on
with your studies, and after your degrees you
can think about that.”
It was hard for me to stop thinking about it,
though. Every time I saw a priest, I would
ask him about things and about his lifestyle
and, in doing so, I came across a Legionary
Priest. He invited me to a vocational retreat,
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which was something I was looking to do. I
Sunday, I said, “This is what God wants me
to do.” It was so clear and so simple, and so
motivating for me.”
Why do you feel you were chosen to
take on the oversight of Notre Dame of
I came to Holy Land out of obedience. My
superiors called me and told me that the
Vatican was thinking of entrusting Notre Dame
of Jerusalem Center to our congregation.
When I came to Holy Land, it was during
the 2004 intifada (uprising), and there were
a lot of bombings. With a slight grin forming
on his face, Father Juan said, “I suspect that
my superiors got a list of the Legionaries of
Christ and said, ‘if we lose him, we won’t lose things that are out of your control, but most
anything’ and they found me right away.
Coming to work in Holy Land was 100% out of
my plans. I came to Notre Dame in Jerusalem,
and found a team of very committed and loyal
people. The general manager, the accountant,
the reservations manager and the whole team
backed me immediately. After a few months,
the situation in Holy Land changed for the
better, and pilgrims started coming back.
Photo: Hanan Isachar
Before I came to Holy Land, I spent twenty
five years in different seminaries. I was so
far away from any business environment or
administrative type of work, but my father
was a pretty good businessman. When we
were children, he would take us along when
he went out to conduct business. When I
came to Holy Land, I realized how helpful all
this experience was for me.
Has it been difficult for you in Holy Land?
We set the conditions to be happy, enjoy and
succeed. So often we forget that we create
the conditions with our attitude. If you have
the right attitude, even when conditions are
difficult, you can change them. You can be in
optimal conditions, but if your attitude is bad,
you will destroy it. It is up to you how things
go, most of the time. Sometimes, there are
of the time, it is up to you. I really do have a
lot of fun.
When did the vision for Magdala begin?
To answer this question, we need to take
a step back. I had a very traumatizing
experience with the fall of the Twin Towers
in New York on September 11, 2001. I was
serving as the director of the seminary in New
York at the time.