Kathy has lived most of the past 35 years in Bethlehem, in the Holy Land. As a member of L’Arche, she is responsible for the mission of L’Arche in Palestine and was instrumental in supporting the creation of a community in Bethlehem. L’Arche is an international federation of communities, founded by Jean Vanier, that brings together people with and without intellectual disabilities to share life and create communities of welcome where each person’s unique gifts can be shared and celebrated.

The community of L’Arche in Bethlehem is a unique and fertile ground for life-giving friendships within a context of tremendous diversity – young people and those not so young, people with intellectual disabilities and those without, people from refugee camps and rural villages and those from cities, Muslims and Christians. It’s a place of peace, joy, and beauty within a context of military occupation that can often be violent, depressing, and sometimes very ugly.

Kathy was born in Washington, DC, the youngest of eight children in a Lebanese-American family. It was after graduating from Boston College in 1981, doing some volunteer work in a village in Galilee, and then receiving a master’s degree in psychology that her experience in L’Arche began in 1985 in Palestine. She has been faithfully supported over the years by her home community of L’Arche Toronto.

Trained in the Ignatian spiritual tradition, Kathy is also engaged in the ministry of spiritual accompaniment and retreat direction and has found her spiritual home in the Secular Institute of the Heart of Jesus.