Catholic groups comment on UN, Palestine
The Vatican has yet to comment on the Palestinian Authority’s plan to request full membership in the United Nations for Palestine, but some Catholic organizations are weighing in.
The Caritas blog carried a statement from the organization’s general secretary in Jerusalem, Claudette Habesch:
At Caritas Jerusalem, we have seen the ravages of the occupation on the people for the past 44 years. There is the destruction of houses and crops, the discrimination for access to resources and services, the fear of random arrest and the creeping despair that eventually we might lose the our land to Israeli settlers. The feeling of injustice and humiliation is in every heart. If Palestine becomes a UN member, Palestinians will regain their dignity. They will be considered as equals in peace negotiations and when defending their cause in the UN forum. They will have access to the International Court of Justice to protect the rights of their land. They will finally believe in a peaceful future in Palestine for their children.
An analysis carried on the blog of the Latin Rite Patriarchate of Jerusalem argued in favor of the Palestinian Authority’s move. It said the breakdown in negotiations with Israel left the Palestinians “with one logical and natural option which is to turn to the UN as the world governance system.” It adds:
The sad fact remains that the United States has already declared its intention to use its power of veto in order to abort the Palestinian attempt to achieve their long overdue right to an independent state, although in his speech at the 65th session of the United Nations in September 2010, President Obama praised the president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas and said that the world can have an agreement that will lead to the creation of a new Palestinian state next year (2011).
Patriarch Fouad Twal signed on to a more ambiguous official statement by the heads of the Christian churches in the Holy Land that calls for a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinians and warns against any violence, whatever the outcome of the United Nations vote.
Closer to home, America magazine has editorialized in favor of permitting Palestine to be a member of the UN. “It is past time to welcome Palestine into the community of nations,” according to the Jesuit weekly, where the editor, Rev. Drew Christiansen, S.J., has extensive experience working in behalf of the church in the Middle East.
I didn’t see a statement from the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, the New York-based papal charity for the Holy Land, but CNEWA did link to a Catholic News Service article on its home page that said “Palestinian students at Bethlehem University spoke of how their lives would change if the United Nations recognized Palestine as an independent country.” The students hoped for an end to travel restrictions – the same type of problems Bethlehem University students told me about when I reported from their campus 11 years ago.
I’m not sure about the present Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, but I would say the Holy See has tried to be both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian since at least the time of Pope John Paul II’s visit to the Holy Land in 2000. That balanced approach, continued by Pope Benedict in his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, has included many statements reflecting deep concern about the continued suffering of the Palestinian people – the kind of rhetoric that some would deem anti-Israel if it were spoken as part of American political discourse.
Still, it’s an approach that American Catholics would do well to consider.
It worries me that what I read in the US Catholic press seems to have a strong anti-Israel bias, regardless of the situational context. It’s almost as though the Catholic media have bought into what sometimes looks very like a recrudescence of anti-Semitism among a large segment of the intellectual community. That appears in Europe, too, of course, so I suppose we should expect to see European Catholics, including the Vatican, come out in favor of whatever the Palestinian authority decides to do here.
Mr. Smith, I think it’s God that can do no wrong, not Israel. I think you might be confusing the two.
Not at all. But I think intellectuals are sometimes so eager to choose victims to champion that they fail to understand the universality of victimhood.
So David, you’re choosing PM Netanyahu and FM Lieberman as the victims in the current discussion?
As a woman I know, who was married to a Palestinian said: “The Europeans have persecuted the Jews for centuries and they are making the Palestinians do penance for it.”
No, Margaret. Both are victims. It doesn’t make sense to me to choose one over the other.
On the other hand, you can’t just split the baby down the middle.
I don’t think that there is any obvious solution. But humans are always impatient – we think there must always be one right thing to do right now. But sometimes there isn’t.
The best decision can be not to decide, but to keep talking.
If you want to tell the President what you think he should do about a Palestinian state, here’s an email address for him:
http://www.whitehouse.gov
I support the creation of a Palestinian state. These are good people, both Isrealis and Palestinians. Like every where, there are some that are misguided in their struggle. We can no longer sacrifice the Palestinians as expendable while supporting Isrealis. We must encourage both sides to come to peace and provide fair incentives to both sides. Peace is the humanitarian solution that would not only benefit the Palestinians and Israelis. It would benefit the world.
The United States should strongly encourage PEACE. It is time to put down guns and work together in PEACE!.
http://kajblogspot.blogspot.com
“I didn’t see a statement from the Catholic Near East Welfare Association”
Have you seen CNEWA’s new blog? Fr. Elias Mallon wrote a post for it about the Palestinian request at the UN, and the response of the local churches:
http://www.cnewa.org/blog.aspx?ID=176&pagetypeID=35&sitecode=HQ
AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS IN THAT DAY THAT I WILL SEEK TO DESTROY ALL NATIONS THAT COME AGAINST JERUSALEM. ZECH 12:9 FOR WHEN THEY SAY “PEACE AND SAFETY; THEN SUDDEN DESCRUCTION COMETH UPON THEM AS TRAVAIL UPON A WOMAN WITH CHILD; AND THEY SHALL NOT ESCAPE….BUT YOU BRETHREN, ARE NOT IN DARKNESS; THAT THAT day SHOULD OVERTAKE YOU AS A THEIF. 1THES5:3-4
Pray always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape ALL THESE THINGS that shall come to pass, an to stand before the Son Of MAN LUKE 21:36
we can know the time or “season of time” “You hypocrites you can discern the face of the sky and of the earth but how is it that ye do not discern this time? LUKE 12:56
Therefore let us not sleep as do others; but let us whatch and be sober 1 Thes 5:6 BUT TAKE HEED; SEE I HAVE TOLD YOU “ALL THINGS BEFORE HAND MARK 13:26 BEHOLD I COME QUICKLY AND MY REWARD IS WITH ME TO GIVE EVERY MAN ACCORDING AS HIS WORKS SHALL BE” REV 22:12
You have worked hard to combine random biblical quotations to build your own bible.
To Bradley Kerr: Thanks for the CNEWA link. I missed it.
I agree with David – I do seem to see a lot of criticism of Israel at Catholic news sites, but that may be because I mostly visit left-leaning ones. Here’s a recent story at Independent Catholic News (British) that seems moderate …
Podcast – Middle East Analysis looks at bid for Palestinian Statehood … http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=18915
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