Christian Attitudes

Link: http://www.lpj.org/index.htm

Let’s pay a visit to the website of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, shall we? The Latin Patriarch, as we know, is Michel Sabbah. Oh look, as well as official information about Patriarchs, clergy, parishes, etc, there are copies of News Letters in there. They should help us to understand the Patriarchate a little better, so let’s have a look at the first one, called The Living Stones.

There are lots of interesting articles in there and – oh look – there is a section labeled Maps. Actually, there is only one map there. It is of somewhere called ‘Palestine’. It is long and brown and contains Jerusalem and Bir Zeit but there is no reference to the State which really exists there, only the non-existent wannabe state of Palestine. Could it be that the Patriarchate doesn’t recognize the State of Israel? Sabbah keeps blaming terrorism on the “occupation” (ignoring the fact that Arab violence against the Jews started long before 1967) and says that the violence can only be stopped by ending occupation. By “occupation” does he mean Jews inhabiting Israel?

Perhaps he does. Here from his Christmas 2000 homily:

This is our land, to claim our freedom, among our demolished houses and in our besieged towns and villages.