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.
As for example when the LORD destroyed the northern ten tribe of Israel in 721 BC by the Assyrians. And in 586 BC sent the Jews of Jerusalem to Babylon in chains while the city and Temple were destroyed. Or in 72 AD let the Romans destroy Jerusalem and the Second Temple and let the Jews wander the earth for 1900 years.
Even after 1900 years of chastisement,when once again gathered to the "threshing floor of Jebus", apparently the Jews learned nothing except how imitate to "the savagery and butchery of the scullcapped ones" So since the judgements of Isael are administered by the LORD himself, who are we to interfere if God needs to "thresh" his Chosen Ones once again in Jerusalem.
Perhaps when the LORD says "all nations shall gather against Jerusalem", he really does mean "all." Not all but the strongest and largest Superpower, but all nations.
I'm always amazed to see so-called Christians write themselves at Center Stage in the LORD's final drama, although I think that the LORD may have reserved that role for Himself.
All Christians believe they that the Church fulfills and thus supersedes the Old Covenant. That is, unless they adhere to 19th Century manufactured myths like dispensationalism. Furthermore, the Catholic Church has never challenged the basic conception of Israel's right to the Holy Land.
The Catholic Church has a long history of hostility toward the Jews and justifies that hostility by branding them as Christ killers (it is all of humanity that are Christ killers, for Jesus Christ died for the sins of the whole world, and it was pre ordained by God). So, to hear that the Vatican condemns Israel for going after murderers is not jolting news
Christianity does have a sad past of anti-semitism, but don't paint with too broad a brush friend. I think you should at least try to put forward some kind of evidence for this type of anti-semitism currently in the Church. Quite frankly, your statement is entirely unfounded.
To deny that the Pope is Catholic, is to deny that there is a Church. Simply put, if the Pope is not Catholic, then neither are you.
The faithful must disobey him to his face if necessary in the areas where he has himself become a heretic.
Ah, so it is the job of the 'faithful' to decide the doctrine of the Church. Each man a Pope unto himself.
As opposed to the religious leaders appointed by God? If there are any please point me to them- it sure would be nice to know who God has appointed.
Bwahhahahaha.
Um, Khepry, if you believe that about al Jazeera and its ilk, I've got a structural edifice in a certain city that never sleeps you might be interested in...:)
I guess several hundred thousand Jewish lives that were saved weren't much, huh? They saved more Jewish lives than any other nation or individual, including the US which sent a ship of Jews back to Europe. Please stop believing the anti-Catholic propaganda. I suggest reading Pius XII: An Architect for Peace by Margherita Marchione.
It is more than bankrupt it is like committing the terror itself -- by hobbling those who act to stop the terror.
I hear you. Are they pulling a Clinton, Monica and Kosovo on us? I mean what better way to hide your sex scandals than by pushing for war. It seems that something is up, and that this sex scandal was put there at an auspicious time for those who seek Israel's destruction.
Do you think it's the building the Church is interested in, or perhaps cooling tensions in a conflict that has the capacity to spread throughout the world?
PUSHING FOR WAR????? What are you talking about?
I"m wondering about this and anyone can feel free to answer: If Priests were allowed to marry, would this help? I personally believe that they should have the right to marry. However, I'm meaning the question more for those Priests that truly take being a spiritual guider seriously. Not those that think it is a good place to find their next sex victim.
Of course, recognizing identities between waring parties, taking sides and making obtuse definitions is pushing for war. The Vatican wants blood, mark my word.
Jeremiah 31:35 Thus says the Lord, Who gives the sun for a light by day, The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, Who disturbs the sea, And its waves roar (The Lord of hosts is His name): 31:36 "If those ordinances depart From before Me, says the Lord, Then the seed of Israel shall also cease From being a nation before Me forever." 31:37 Thus says the Lord: "If heaven above can be measured, And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel For all that they have done, says the Lord.
God says on the day the Sun does not come up, that is the day He will reject Israel.
I was asking the question FOR THOSE THAT WEREN"T CHILD MOLESTERS!
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