Posted on 04/10/2002 2:52:46 AM PDT by Khepry
The Vatican has issued a stern warning to Israel to respect religious sites in line with its international obligations, following a gun battle around Bethlehem's besieged Church of the Nativity.
Spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the Vatican was following events "with extreme apprehension" and trying to establish the truth about the fighting that flared early on Monday.
This is an act of indescribable barbarity, a violation of every law of humanity and civilisation
Father David Jaeger
Franciscan spokesman
Israel says its troops are under orders not to fire at holy places and blamed Palestinian militants for a fire near the church, which is revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus Christ.
Several hundred Palestinian gunmen and civilians fleeing Israeli tanks have been holed up in the church complex for nearly a week, along with a group of monks and nuns.
A spokesman for Catholic monks in the Holy Land said earlier that Israeli soldiers were guilty of an "indescribable act of barbarity".
Israel had broken its international obligations and risked "long-term and incalculable" consequences, Father David Jaeger said.
Christian clerics from Jerusalem were kept by Israel from entering Bethlehem on Monday
Speaking from Rome, he said monks at the church had reported damage to "sacred spaces" and evidence that Israeli troops had entered the church.
The Pope, who has urged people to pray for peace in the Middle East, on Monday described the violence in the Holy Land as having reached "unimaginable and intolerable" levels.
Click here for a guide to the Church of the Nativity
The Israeli army says Palestinian gunmen provoked a fire which broke out near the Church of the Nativity on Monday.
Gunmen had opened fire from a belltower, wounding two Israeli border policemen in a nearby rooftop look-out, an army officer told Reuters news agency.
Palestinian civilians in Bethlehem have to contend with an Israeli curfew
He said the Israelis returned fire and a smoke grenade started the blaze in a second-floor meeting hall overlooking the Basilica of St Catherine, adjacent to the Church of the Nativity.
One Palestinian gunman was shot dead in the battle, the Israeli source said.
But a priest inside the church, Father Amjad Sabbara, told the BBC that the Palestinian killed was a police officer who had been trying to douse the flames.
He said the blaze had burned for an hour, destroying a piano, chairs, altar cloths and ceremonial cups.
Father Sabbara estimated that there were 240 people in the church. Some were armed, he said, but they were "not using their arms".
The Mayor of Bethlehem, Hanna Nasser, told the BBC that mosaics inside the Basilica of St Catherine had been "affected by the bullets".
Staying put
The Israeli army has been conducting a major military operation across the West Bank for over a week, in response to a wave of suicide bombings by Palestinian militants.
The army will remain in their place and prevent them [the militants] from evading justice
Ariel Sharon
Israeli Prime Minister
"It really involves going through the cities and refugee camps and taking out the infrastructure of the terrorists: weapons, documents, explosive material, laboratories," army spokesman Captain Jacob Dalal told the BBC.
Israeli troops have been using loudspeakers to demand the surrender of the Palestinians inside the Nativity complex.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Monday that his soldiers would not "defile the holiness of the site as the [Palestinians] have" but added that the troops would remain in place until the gunmen inside were captured.
In Britain, Foreign Office Minister Ben Bradshaw described Israeli actions in the area as "totally unacceptable".
The Vatican is reported to be working out an agreement with the Israelis on safe passage for the Palestinians inside the church to the Gaza Strip.
More seriously, I'm not sure what you mean by a shortage of priests.
Tuor
i don't believe that the IDF is preventing the priests from leaving.
so why is the church raising cain at Israel, when it is the friggin terrorists holding the priests, not Israel.
real short with one priest often covering several churches.
the perv priests should be drawn and quartered as an object lesson.
it should be broadcast nationwide as deterrence.
turn off your flames people, i don't believe that the church has any more pervs than any other demographic.
a perv is a perv is a perv no matter if they wear a collar, badge, skullcap or anything else.
Pacelli's criticism of the Nazis dates to at least 1933, immediately after the signing of the concordat between the Holy See and the German Reich. By the end of the war, the Vatican had lodged dozens of protests with the German government, for all sorts of abuses.
The encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge, issued by Pius XI in 1937, was authored by Pacelli, and explicitly condemns racial and neo-pagan theories of government. After Pacelli's election in 1939, his first encyclical, Summi Pontificatus repeats these condemnations.
Both during and after the war, prominent Jews throughout the world were quick to acknowldge Pacelli's efforts on their behalf:
"the repeated interventions of the Holy Father on behalf of Jewish Communities in Europe has evoked the profoundest sentiments of appreciation and gratitude from Jews throughout the world."
Rabbi Maurice Perlzweig, the political director of the World Jewish Congress, February 18, 1944 letter to Msgr. Amleto Cicognani, the apostolic delegate in Washington, D.C.
"The people of Israel will never forget what His Holiness and his illustrious delegates, inspired by the eternal principles of religion which form the very foundations of true civilization, are doing for our unfortunate brothers and sisters in this most tragic hour of history, which is living proof of divine Providence in this world"
Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog of Jerusalem , February 28, 1944.
"It is not easy for us to find the right words to express the warmth and consolation we experienced because of the concern of the Supreme Pontiff, who offered a large sum to relive the sufferings of deported Jews... The Jews of Romania will never forget these facts of historic importance..."
Chief Rabbi Alexander Shafran of Bucharest April 7 letter to the papal nuncio in Romania.
"My first duty was to thank [Pius XII] and through him, the Catholic Church, on behalf of the Jewish public, for all they had done in the various countries to rescue Jews, to save children, and Jews in general."
Moshe Sharrett, the future Foreign Minister and Prime Minister of Israel, in a report of his meeting with the Pope to the Executive of the Jewish Agency, April 22, 1945.
"I wish to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Pope Pius for his appeal in behalf of the victims of war and oppression. He provided aid for Jews in Italy and intervened in behalf of refugees to lighten their burden."
William Rosenwald, the chairman of the United Jewish Appeal for Refugees, Overseas Needs and Palestine, reported in the New York Times, March 18, 1946.
"When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the Pope was raised for the victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out on the great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict."
Golda Meir, Israel's Foreign Minister, comments made upon the death of Pius XII on October 8, 1958. Representatives of the World Jewish Congress, American Jewish Congress, American Jewish Committee, Synagogue Council of America, New York Board of Rabbis, the Anti-Defamation League, Massachusetts Board of Rabbis, Rabbinical Council of America, National Council of Jewish Women, and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations also gracefully eulogized Pope Pius XII. The Chief Rabbis of London, Rome, Jerusalem, France, Egypt, Argentina and many other Jewish newspapers also paid tribute to the late Pope.
On Christmas Day, 1941, the New York Times, commenting on Pius XII's Christmas Message, carried the following editorial:
The Pope's Message
The voice of Pius XII is a lonely voice in the silence and darkness enveloping Europe this Christmas. The Pope reiterates what he has said before. In general, he repeats, although with greater definiteness, the five-point plan for peace which he first enunciated in his Christmas message after the war broke out in 1939. His program agrees in fundamentals with the Roosevelt-Churchill eight-point declaration. It calls for respect for treaties and the end of the possibility of aggression, equal treatment for minorities, freedom from religious persecution. It goes farther than the Atlantic Charter in advocating an end of all national monopolies of economic wealth, and so far as the eight points, which demands complete disarmament for Germany pending some future limitation of arms for all nations.
The Pontiff emphasized principles of international morality with which most men of good-will agree. He uttered the ideas a spiritual leader would be expected to express in time of war. Yet his words sound strange and bold in the Europe of today, and we comprehend the complete submergence and enslavement of great nations, the very sources of our civilization, as we realize that he is about the only ruler left o the Continent of Europe who dares to raise his voice at all. The last tiny islands of neutrality are so hemmed in and overshadowed by war and fear that no one but the Pope is still able to speak aloud in the name of the Prince of Peace. This is indeed a measure of the "moral devastation" he describes as the accompaniment of physical ruin and inconceivable human suffering.
In calling for a "real new order" based on "liberty, justice and love," to be attained only by a "return to social and international principles capable of creating a barrier against the abuse of liberty and the abuse of power," the Pope put himself squarely against Hitlerism. Recognizing that there is no road open to agreement between belligerents "whose reciprocal war aims and programs seem to be irreconcilable," he left no doubt that the Nazi aims are also irreconcilable with his own conception of a Christian peace. "The new order which must arise out of this war," he asserted, "must be based on principles." And that implies only one end to the war.
On Christmas Day, 1942, the Times once again editorialized on the papal Christmas Message and again praised Pius XII for his moral leadership:
The Pope's Verdict
No Christmas sermon reaches a larger congregation than the message Pope Pius XII addresses to a war-torn world at this season. This Christmas more than ever he is a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent. The Pulpit whence he speaks is more than ever like the Rock on which the Church was founded, a tiny island lashed and surrounded by a sea of war. In these circumstances, in any circumstances, indeed, no one would expect the Pope to speak as a political leader, or a war leader, or in any other role than that of a preacher ordained to stand above the battle, tied impartially, as he says, to all people and willing to collaborate in any new order which will bring a just peace.
But just because the Pope speaks to and in some sense for all the peoples at war, the clear stand he takes on the fundamental issues of the conflict has greater weight and authority. When a leader bound impartially to nations on both sides condemns as heresy the new form of national state which subordinates everything to itself: when he declares that whoever wants peace must protect against "arbitrary attacks" the "juridical safety of individuals: "when he assails violent occupation of territory, the exile and persecution of human beings for no reason other than race or political opinion: when he says that people must fight for a just and decent peace, a "total peace" ; the "impartial judgment" is like a verdict in a high court of justice.
Pope Pius expresses as passionately as any leader on our side the war aims of the struggle for freedom when he says that those who aim at building a new world must fight for free choice of government and religious order. They must refuse that the state should make of individuals a herd of whom the state disposes as if they were a lifeless thing.
It's a hostage situation, only a little more complicated than you realise. Zionists are forcing Western Christians, willy-nilly, to look to them for protection from the muslims whose religious fanaticism and political radicalism they themselves have ignited. This thread's full of hostages who're just loving it.
basically the pope needs to be calling on the pallies to let the priests go and get out of his church, not condemning Israel.
of xourse the pope is right up there with the rest of the world bad mouthing Israeli defending themselves, and calling for them to settle their differences with the pallies, when asll the pallies want is for Israel to cease to exsist as a nation and for every man,woman and child jew to be dead.
if you are anti-Israel, you're pretty much pro-terrorist.
Got to watch them JOOs, might want to speak up one of these days and say that suicide bombers are bad or something liberal and all that.
If you choose to remain ignorant of the truth and believe everything the liberal, secular media spoon feeds you, I cannot help you. I pointed you to the actual statement from the Pope where he recognizes the right of Israel to defend itself. That recognition is based on the doctrine of just war. I also pointed you to two instances of the Vatican condemning the Palestinian terrorism. Romulus provided you documentation to disprove your statement that Pope Pius XII didn't use his pulpit. The truth is out there if you wish to see it.
You'll find it more time and bandwidth efficient to post only when and if you have something original to say.
For Christ is born of Mary, and gathered all above,
While mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of wondering love.
O morning stars together, proclaim the holy birth,
And praises sing to God the King, and peace to men on earth!
How silently, how silently, the wondrous Gift is giv'n;
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heav'n
No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in.
Where children pure and happy pray to the blessed Child,
Where misery cries out to Thee, Son of the mother mild;
Where charity stands watching and faith holds wide the door,
The dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more.
O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today.
We hear he Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!
words by Phillips Brooks, 1867
Brooks wrote about his horseback journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, where he assisted with the midnight service on Christmas eve 1865:
"I remember standing in the old church in Bethlehem, close to the spot where Jesus was born, when the whole church was ringing hour after hour with splendid hymns of praise to God, how again and again it seemed as if I could hear voices I knew well, telling each other of the Wonderful Night of the Savior's birth."
don't need no person like you to tell me what to post or not post.
as far as bandwidth, what i post in a day doesn't come close to sucking as much bandwidth as what you and your buddy ELS post in five minutes.
you must be really touchy is all i can say.
BTW, as a Catholic, it is my responsibilities to call it like i see it, even with the church.
they don't get no free ride because of a collar or a funny hat.
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