Pope’s ‘Last Supper’ Mass Raises Jewish Hackles

A plan by Pope Francis to celebrate mass in a Jerusalem room believed by Christians to have hosted the Last Supper has brought criticism, controversy and conspiracy theories worthy of a Dan Brown novel.

The pope’s first official visit to the Holy Land this month was meant to showcase interfaith tolerance and the improved ties between Israel and the Holy See. But the plan to hold mass in the room, known as the Cenacle, has sparked an ugly disagreement that is threatening to undermine the visit.

The Cenacle is on the upper floor of a Crusader-era building that is holy to all three monotheistic faiths. Not only was it a mosque in Ottoman times but it is also directly above the site revered by some Orthodox Jews as the burial place of King David.

This has led to protests from some Jews, who say the planned mass would contravene an agreement in place since the days of the British Mandate under which different faiths have access to the site, but are mostly barred from holding religious rituals there.

Rabbi Yitzhak Goldstein, head of a Jewish seminary located at the site, said: “I have tolerance, I have understanding, but what I condemn is an aggressive change of the British status quo.”

The fear, shared by some Muslims, is that Israel is poised to hand control of the building to the Vatican as part of long-running negotiations over the use and taxation of buildings in the Holy Land, which are drawing to a close.

“The Israelis have agreed to give away this important shrine,” said Mohammad Dajani Daoudi, a professor at Jerusalem’s al-Quds university and member of the family that served as custodian of the site for four centuries under Ottoman rule. “There has been a deal; we have heard word of....

FROM WIKIPEDIA:

The Cenacle (from Latin cenaculum), also known as the “Upper Room”, is a room in Jerusalem traditionally held to be the site of The Last Supper. The word is a derivative of the Latin word cena, which means dinner. In Christian tradition, based on Acts 1:13,[1] the “Upper Room” was not only the site of the Last Supper (i.e. the Cenacle), but the usual place where the Apostles stayed in Jerusalem, and according to the Catholic Encyclopedia[2] “the first Christian church”.

Thus the Cenacle is considered the site where many other events described in the New Testament took place,[3][4] such as:

the Washing of the Feet[5]
some resurrection appearances of Jesus[6][7][8]
the gathering of the disciples after the Ascension of Jesus[9]
the election of Saint Matthias as apostle[10]
the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost[11]

Since at least the fourth century AD a structure identified as the Cenacle, the site of the Last Supper, has been a popular Christian pilgrimage site on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. It is documented in the narratives of many early pilgrims such as Egeria, who visited it in 384.[12] The building has experienced numerous cycles of destruction and reconstruction, culminating in the Gothic structure which stands today.

The early history of the Cenacle site is uncertain; scholars have made attempts at establishing a chronology based on archaeological evidence and historical sources. Biblical archaeologist Bargil Pixner[14] offers these significant dates and events in the building’s history.

The original building was a synagogue later probably used by Jewish Christians. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the building was spared during the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus (AD 70),[15] though Pixner thinks it was likely rebuilt right after the war, and claims three walls of that structure are still extant: the North, East and South walls of the present King David’s Tomb. Roman emperor Theodosius I built an octagonal church (the “Theodosian Church” or “Holy Zion Church”) aside the synagogue (that was named “Church of the Apostles”). The Theodosian Church, probably started in AD 382, was consecrated by John II, Bishop of Jerusalem in AD 394. Some years later, c. AD 415, Bishop John II enlarged the Holy Zion Church transforming it in a large rectangular basilica with five naves, always aside the Church of the Apostles. This building was later destroyed by Persian invaders in 614 AD and shortly after partially rebuilt by patriarch Modestus. In AD 1009 the church was razed to the ground by the Muslim caliph Al-Hakim and shortly after replaced by the Crusaders with a five-aisled basilica named for “Saint Mary”. Today part of the site is taken by the smaller church of the Dormition Abbey. It is thought that the Cenacle occupied a portion of two aisles on the right (southern) side of the altar.[16] While the church was destroyed in 1219, the section containing the former synagogue including its upper-floor room (the Cenacle) were spared.[16] In the 1330s, it passed into the custody of the Franciscan Order of Friars, who maintained the structure until 1552, when the Ottoman authorities took possession of it. After the Franciscan friars’ eviction, this room was transformed into a mosque, as evidenced by the mihrab in the direction of Mecca and an Arabic inscription prohibiting public prayer at the site. Christians were not officially allowed to return until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The historical building is currently owned by the State of Israel. The Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, which had previously owned the building and sought its return, will have administrative control over the Cenacle itself after the Vatican-Israeli accord which is reported to be near completion as of May 2013.

Doubtful Christian authenticity, IMHO, in that I doubt a house would have been built on a tomb — although, real estate is tight there, and things do get buried, so it is possible.

Yes, that would make sense, but the more doubtful attribution is not the cenacle, but the tomb. IIRC, the traditions about the upper room being in this location are very ancient indeed, but the legends about the tomb of King David only date to the crusades. More than likely it is a case of its holiness drawing in other latter accretions, perhaps begun by medieval Christians but then being accepted by Jews and the like. It makes the Jewish protest kind of funny since, most probably, they are upset about the desecration of a tomb that doesn't exist, and is only thought to exist there in the first place because of its important Christian associations.

Catholics love to build their altars over tombs; it’s a reminder that the sacrifice of the mass conquers death itself. The Vatican itself is built over the tomb of St. Peter; in the 1950s, they discovered an entire necropolis under it, and in the place of the greatest holiness was a tomb inscribed, “Here lies Peter.” (The Vatican had been rebuilt over the same site so many times, the original necropolis had been “lost” for 1500 years!)

In fact, if you go to any Catholic church named after a person, there is a relic of that saint under the altar. Usually they are very tiny: Erasmus snided that if you collected all the relics of the holy cross, there’d be as much wood as the forests of Lebanon; in truth, the relics are often just a gram or less, so 1,000 churches would have only 2 lbs of wood.

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