Detroit — The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, the Latin-rite archbishop for the Holy Land, visited Michigan on his recent Sept. 13-24 U.S. trip to promote support for a new Catholic university in Jordan and encourage Americans to visit the dwindling Christians of the land of Jesus’ birth.

The patriarch, His Beatitude Fouad Twal, met with Archbishop Allen Vigneron and Chaldean Catholic Bishop Ibrahim N. Ibrahim, as well as area residents whose roots are in the Holy Land during his Sept. 22-23 stop in Detroit.

He then traveled to Chelsea, about 15 miles west of Ann Arbor, where he met with regional members of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre and celebrated the Saturday vigil Mass at St. Mary of Chelsea Church.

During his homily, Patriarch Twal spoke about peace: “I am grateful to be gathering in the best gathering — the Mass. We should pray for each other, for your peace, for our peace.”

He said the Christians, Jews and Muslims of the Holy Land do not want violence, but justice and a normal life for everyone.

And while the Christian presence in the Holy Land has continued to shrink, with many of the indigenous Christians emigrating to Europe or North America, the patriarch said the continuing presence of Christians is a force for peace in the region.

“There are 100 religious congregations from all of the world and 14 contemplative congregations who pray day and night in front of the Blessed Sacrament for peace in the world,” he said.

The patriarch’s diocese includes Israel, Jordan, the Palentinian Territories and Cyprus.

Besides St. Mary’s parishioners, the church’s capacity congregation included Knights of the Holy Sepulchre from throughout the order’s North Central Lieutenancy, an honor guard of local fourth-degree Knights of Columbus and many former Holy Land Christians now resident in America.

Fr. William J. Turner, St. Mary’s pastor, said of the patriarch’s visit, “It was wonderful. It was a delightful event to have Patriarch Twal here with us in Chelsea.”

A year ago, the parish of more than 1,100 families had hosted the judicial vicar of the patriarchate, Fr. Emil Salayta, who encouraged support for the child-sponsorship program to enable more children to attend the patriarchate’s system of Catholic grade schools.

That led not only to many people signing up for the $300-a-year sponsorships, but also to the visit this past summer of nine children from the Holy Land.

Encouraging support for the new American University of Madaba, in Jordan, was among the purposes of the patriarch’s U.S. visit. The university, the cornerstone of which was blessed by Pope Benedict XVI on his May 2009 visit to Jordan, is a new Catholic institution and is set to open this month.

Programs available include engineering, science, health sciences, information technology, business and finance, art and design and languages and communications. Open to both Christian and Muslim students, it will begin with 200 student but the projected eventual enrollment is 8,000.

The dwindling population of Christians in the Holy Land needs to be bolstered by the support of Christians around the world and by their visits as pilgrims, Patriarch Twal said during his Michigan visit and in a Sept. 20 interview with Catholic News Service at the suburban Washington offices of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation.

The patriarch told CNS that the Christian population in Jerusalem is about 10,000 — Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox Christians combined. There are about 240,000 Muslims and 455,000 Jews.

He said the small number of Christians “reminds us about the words of the Lord, ‘You will be the salt of the earth,’ and salt is the small quantity.”

Just as only a small amount of salt is needed to flavor food, he said, “I hope we can do our work as a small, small group, to be an example of witness, of charity, to be a bridge between these people, to be an element of peace, an element of tolerance.”

“We don’t need only all the beautiful buildings, all the antiquities,” Patriarch Twal said. “We want this living community, these living stones. That’s why we are doing our best to give them hope.”

He said one thing that gives Christians in Jerusalem hope is when pilgrims come. For now, it’s easier for pilgrims to visit Jerusalem from the United States, Europe or Asia than it is for those nearby.

“We need any parish priest to come with his parish group, from all Palestine, Jordan and the Arab countries, to visit the Holy Land, to visit Bethlehem and Jerusalem,” he said.

“When we see pilgrims in the Holy Land, it says ‘you are not alone, we are with you,’” he said.

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— Patricia Zapor of Catholic News Service contributed to this story