Vatican paper praises Schneider Hospital as 'bridge to peace' - Jerusalem Post

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Headline: Vatican paper praises Schneider Hospital as 'bridge to peace'Byline: JUDY SIEGELEdition; DailySection: NewsPage: 04

Wednesday, July 30, 2003 -- CNEWA World, the official Vatican publication of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, which read by 92,000 of the leaders of the Catholic Church around the world, has for the first time published a major article praising an Israeli medical institution.

The July-August 2003 issue features a four-page article titled "Children's Hospital Heals More Than Illness" on the Schneider Children's Medical Center for Israel (SCMCI) in Petah Tikva.

The unusual article praises SCMCI for serving as a "bridge to peace" and describes its help to Arabs, such as transplanting the kidney of 19-year-old Yoni Jesner, murdered in a Tel Aviv suicide bomb attack, into the body of Yasmin Abu Ramila, a seven-year-old Palestinian girl. The little girl's father is quoted as saying that "they saved my daughter. Part of their son is living in her." The story, by CNEWA editor Eileen Reinhard, notes that the hospital has raised the quality of pediatric care in all of Israel.

The author praises Irving and the late Helen Schneider, who donated much of the money to build the hospital that opened 11 years ago, and who made the institution their lives' work. SCMCI development and foreign affairs adviser Uri Bar-Ner explained that the Schneider family has had especially deep ties with the Catholic Church in the US, especially with Archimandrate Robert Stern, who is responsible for Vatican affairs in the Middle East and Africa, and with nuns in New York and Chicago. One nun, Christiane Molidor, became good friends with the Schneiders, and when Helen died in 2001, she asked the church to do something to honor her memory. The article, which also reported that an interfaith women's health clinic will open at SCMCI in Helen's memory, was the result.

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