Posted on 11/11/2004 7:16:53 AM PST by SJackson
The Vatican has praised Yasser Arafat as a charismatic leader who struggled to win independence for his people, and repeated its support of a sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Pope John Paul, who last met Arafat in 2001, retreated into private prayer when he was told of the death of the Palestinian leader earlier on Thursday in Paris, a Vatican source said.
The Pope, who made a historic trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories in 2000, sent a message saying he was particularly close to the Palestinian people "in this hour of sadness".
The 84-year-old Pope's message said he prayed that the "star of harmony" would soon bring peace to the Holy Land and that both Israelis and Palestinians could live "reconciled among themselves as two independent and sovereign states".
Earlier, a statement by the Vatican's chief spokesman called Mr Arafat the "illustrious deceased" and asked God to grant eternal rest to his soul.
"The Holy See joins the pain of the Palestinian people for the passing of President Yasser Arafat. He was a leader of great charisma who loved his people and tried to guide them towards national independence," said the statement by chief spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls.
The official statement was bound to displease Israel because it made no mention of militant attacks, which the Jewish state blamed on Mr Arafat and insists must stop before the stalled peace process can get back on track.
In recent years the Vatican continued to recognise Mr Arafat as the legitimate leader of the Palestinians after Washington and Israel had written him off.
But Vatican officials privately criticised him for what one called "jumping off the peace train".
"There is no doubt that he was a towering figure for his people but his great mistake was not to sign on at Camp David," a senior Vatican prelate told Reuters.
"That was a great failure and a lot of problems stemmed from that," he said. "He missed his date with history."
At a US-brokered a peace summit in 2000 both sides came close to a final accord that would have established an independent Palestinian state, but the talks broke down over the status of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.
Washington and Israel blamed Mr Arafat for the failure.
Over the past four years, the Vatican's improvement in relations with the Palestinian Authority coincided with a deterioration of relations with Israel.
The Pope repeatedly criticised Israeli incursions into Palestinian territories and last November, the Vatican was shocked when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came to Rome for several days but did not ask to see the Pope.
Exactly!
Amen AG.
Also, they must be terribly careful to do nothing that what give an iota of impetus to Muslim madmen to go on a spree of blowing up Christian churches in the PA or killing Christian Palestinians for that matter.
It may seem like an odious and distasteful state of affairs, but it has been the judgement of the Holy See to do everything to preserve the Church's legal rights in the Holy Land with regard to the Israeli authorities as well as the PA. And of course a premium has been placed on trying to preserve the lives of Palestinian Christians and the Palestinian Christian community which is Catholic and Orthodox and is also intermarried with the Armenian community in Jerusalem.
"Yes I have a big problem with Poles... "
I'm Polish. What's your problem ?
Actually quite false... But blinkers seem to be your stuff...
The midrash got it right... :-)
Rabin with a bolshevik background?
LOL!
Kielce would be one... The collaboration of the Poles in the Shoah another...
The crass antisemitism of the majority of Poles the final straw!
Well, the enemies of my enemies are my friends, and the soviets were less antisemitic than the average Pole...
Nice try, but no cigar!
I thought what Carter said was a cheap cop out; but now the Pope eulogises. . .pathetic.
Aw shut up.
Oy vey, another simp that mis-interprets the doctrine of Papal Infallibility. But hey, if it makes for a good insult, who needs accuracy?
I, of course, knew that. As a Protestant, I believe in Sola Scriptura. Having said that, the Pope was way off base praising a mass-murderer like Arafat (to include American diplomats) no matter which way you slice it. But then again, it's not hard to figure out who the Pope is rooting for in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is it.
"Take a Muslim home to lunch!"
Or... We can start the "Invite a Muslim to Teach your Kid's in Sunday School" program.
"...and the soviets were less antisemitic than the average Pole... "
Poles and Jews didn't love each other. Asking who start it is like asking what was first: egg or hen. I could present you my opinions in these matters, however it seems that you are just an old fanatic, who are yelling all the time about those horrible Poles...
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