| Israel very displeased. One hopes Pope Benedict will check his Eastern bishops, who show evidence of Stockholm Syndrome or antisemitism, your choice. |
AFP -- Bishops and patriarchs from across the Middle East held a two-week synod at the Vatican chaired by Pope Benedict XVI and on Saturday called on the international community to end the occupation of Arab lands.
"Recourse to theological and biblical positions which use the Word of God to wrongly justify injustices is not acceptable," the synod said in a statement.
Archbishop Cyril Salim Butros, head of the commission which drew up the statement, went one step further, saying: "The theme of the Promised Land cannot be used as a basis to justify the return of the Jews to Israel and the expatriation of the Palestinians."
"For Christians, one can no longer talk of the land promised to the Jewish people," the Lebanese-born head of the Greek Melkite Church in the United States said, because the "promise" was "abolished by the presence of Christ."
Israel on Sunday objected to remarks by Middle East Catholic bishops that it used scripture to justify occupying Palestinian lands, saying they recalled theological debates of the Middle Ages. "The public theological debate over who holds the correct interpretation of the holy scripture is a thing of the Middle Ages," foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP. "It seems an unwise idea to try to revive it."
| Then there is this (published on Friday) reporting about Jewish-Italian MP Fiamma Nirenstein, recently reconfirmed as vice president of Italy's Foreign Affairs committee: |
Commenting on the Vatican Synod about Middle East taking place in Rome these days, Nirenstein pointed out a document "written in a tone of theological excommunication towards the State of Israel," which was signed by the Custodian of the Holy Land, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who later denied involvement, saying that "no church in the Holy Land had signed the document."
Nirenstein pointed out, however, that the names of top-level signers are clearly visible on the document which is available on the internet.
The document speaks in the name of "us Christian Palestinians," and says that "the military occupation is a sin against God and against man". It excommunicates Christian supporters of Israel, takes sides against the very presence of Israel, likens the defensive barrier that has blocked 98% of terrorism to apartheid, attacks the communities in Judea and Samaria and essentially cancels the existence of the Jewish state. The document goes so far as to legitimize terrorism when it talks about the "thousands of prisoners who languish in Israeli jails" which are "part of the society around us". "Resistance to the evil of occupation is a Christian's right and duty," says the document.
"In the final draft of the appeal which will be voted on Friday, the Synod is once again offering the Catholic Church as the guarantor of freedom of religious and personal freedom for all religions," wrote Nirenstein. "But if there are no sanctions against what Christians suffer in Islamic countries and if they continue to blame the Jews who have nothing to do with it all, how do they think they will be able--morally and practically--to sustain this?" |