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Nazareth mosque construction continues
Church leaders renew protests
Construction work is underway on the site of a proposed mosque in Nazareth, adjacent to the Basilica of the Annunciation—with the approval of the Israeli government, and despite heated objections from Catholic leaders.

In a public statement released through the Fides news service, Father David Jaeger, OFM, spokesman for the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, said: “This activity is taking place in total disregard of the oft expressed feelings and pleas of the worldwide Christian community.” The Franciscan Custody pointed out that the Israeli approval for the construction project had been widely denounced not only by Catholic leaders, but also by many Muslim and Jewish officials, including Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, and Sheik Hussein Tantawi, the leading Islamic authority of Egypt. The government authorized an Islamic group to proceed with construction on the doorstep of the Catholic basilica despite previous court rulings that the Islamic group had no legal claim to that land.

The effect of the construction project is to make it difficult for Catholic pilgrims to reach one of the world’s most revered shrines, the Franciscan spokesman said. Pointing out that some pilgrims have been jeered at and even stoned by Islamic zealots near the construction site, Father Jaeger said that the presence of a mosque in that location “will in effect put this Holy Place in a state of permanent siege.”

The Franciscan Custody’s statement concluded with the charge: “It is difficult to escape the suspicion that what we are now seeing is a cynical attempt to exploit the present international situation as well as the dramatic conditions elsewhere in the Holy Land in order to carry out, almost by stealth, this harmful plan.”

Speaking after his return from a trip to the Holy Land, Cardinal Walter Kasper said that the construction of the mosque is a “provocation” which should be stopped. Cardinal Kasper—who heads a Vatican committee for relations with the state of Israel—contradicted reports suggesting that the Vatican had given approval for the mosque construction project. Cardinal Kasper met with Israeli President Moshe Kasav to emphasize the Vatican’s concerns.

The leaders of Christian communities in Jerusalem issued a joint statement on November 29 in which they said the building of the controversial mosque could cause a serious setback in Jewish-Christian dialogue. The Christian leader also called on the international community to protect the shrines of the Holy Land, charging that Israel could no longer be trusted to do so. The statement was signed by 12 Christian leaders including Latin-rite Catholic Patriarch Michel Sabbah, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Eirenios I, Bishop Mounib Youan of the Lutheran Evangelical Church, and Father Giovanni Batistelli, of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land.

The statement concluded:

If some Israeli authorities abuse their governmental power to manipulate people’s religious sentiments, to divide the population to create conflict, to foment intolerant fundamentalism, then they cannot credibly claim that they can be trusted to respect any religion’s Holy Places in their jurisdiction, whether in Nazareth or elsewhere.

Off-and-on request
Foreign minister asks for surprise Vatican visit
In a strange diplomatic episode, Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres made a rushed request for a meeting with Pope John Paul II on December 11, and then—when the Pope proved unavailable—said that he himself could not meet with other Vatican officials at the time he had suggested.

The Vatican press office disclosed that Peres had sent an urgent request, relayed through the Israeli ambassador to the Holy See, for a meeting with the Pontiff and with the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano. The request for a meeting with the Pope came with virtually no advance warning, at a time when Peres was already in Rome for meetings with Italian government officials. The Israeli request even included a very specific time for the proposed meeting: between 12 noon and 12:30.

Although Pope John Paul was not available at that time because of prior commitments, the Vatican quickly arranged for Peres to meet with Cardinal Sodano and with Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, the Secretary for Relations with States. However, the Israeli ambassador then called back to say that Peres would not be able to make the scheduled meeting, citing his talks with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.

Shimon Peres last visited the Vatican on October 10, 2000. At the time, he met with the same two prelates: Cardinal Sodano and Archbishop Tauran. His request for a meeting with the Holy Father comes just two weeks after Pope John Paul met with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Vatican conference
On Christians in the Holy Land
Pope John Paul called 21 Catholic leaders to Rome for a December 13 conference on the future of Christianity in the Holy Land. Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls explained that the Pope’s “purely pastoral” initiative was intended to help focus attention on the difficult condition of Christians living in the Middle East, where they are “often tested by acts of violence and discrimination.”

Those invited to attend the conference included the Latin, Syrian, Maronite, Melkite, Chaldean, and Armenian Catholic prelates with ecclesial jurisdiction over Jerusalem, as well as the Franciscan Custodian of the Holy Land (Father Giovanni Battistelli) and the apostolic nuncios serving in Israel (Archbishop Pietro Sambi) and Jordan (Bishop Fernando Filoni). The Pope also sought the participation of several Vatican officials, and representatives from the episcopal conferences of Europe, Latin America, the US, and Canada, explaining that these were countries “which follow the developing situation in the Holy Land with particular attention.”

Back to Catholic World Report January 2002 Table of Contents