JERUSALEM - The Pope’s first mass in Israel became a political platform when Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal blamed Israel for the problems facing Christians in the Holy Land.
“Holy Father, you stand before a small flock that is shrinking, that suffers from emigration, largely due to the effects of the unjust occupation and all its humiliation, violence and hatred,” he said referring to Israeli authority in some Palestinian areas and at checkpoints. “Jesus wept in vain over Jerusalem and continues to do so.”
Most Christians in Israel and the Palestinian Authority are Arab, and many relate nationalistically as Palestinians, not Israelis. Palestinian flags flew in the crowd and the traditional mass songs were sung in Arabic by local congregants at the mass site, an outdoor area in the Kidron Valley built specifically for the mass.
“Around us, we have the agony of the Palestinian people, who dream of living in a free and independent Palestinian State, but have not found its realization; and the agony of the Israeli people, who dream of a normal life in peace and security and, despite all their military and mass media might, have not found its realization,” Twal continued.
An Israeli official rejected the accusation and said Israel views her Christian residents as allies.
“Don’t blame us for the decreasing numbers of Christians in the Holy Land. It has to do directly with Palestinians themselves,” Raphael Ben-Hur, senior deputy director-general of the Tourism Ministry told Newsmax. “There is a diminishing number of Christians in Bethlehem and it has nothing to with Israel and nothing to do with occupied territories. It has to do with the Muslims.
Without addressing the politics of the situation, Pope Benedict XVI empathized with the local Christians and called on local authorities to take care of the minority group.
“I wish to acknowledge the difficulties, the frustration, and the pain and suffering which so many of you have endured as a result of the conflicts which have afflicted these lands, and the bitter experiences of displacement which so many of your families have known and – God forbid – may yet know,” he said in his homily at the foot of the Mount of Olives. “I hope my presence here is a sign that you are not forgotten, that your persevering presence and witness are indeed precious in God’s eyes and integral to the future of these lands.”
The head of the Catholic Church also addressed the “tragic reality” of Christian emigration from the Holy Land that leaves a “great cultural and spiritual impoverishment to the city.”
“As I urge the authorities to respect, to support and to value the Christian presence here, I also wish to assure you of the solidarity, love and support of the whole Church and of the Holy See,” he exhorted.
Following the Pope’s statements, Jerusalem’s Mayor Nir Barkat told Newsmax he accepts the challenge to care for the Christian flock in his city.
“I accept the urging. I think we should make the Christians that live in Jerusalem feel more comfortable as residents of the city and I’m committed to serve them as much as I am any other resident of the city,” he said. “I accept the challenge and I hope Christians around the world also accept the challenge that I am giving them to see all the Christians in the world come here at least once in a lifetime.”
Barkat, who was elected in November, has a goal to attract 10 million tourists, of all religions, each year to Jerusalem.
To shouts of “Viva il Pappa” (long live the Pope), strains of bagpipes, organ choruses and cries from emotional worshipers, the Pope rode in on the “Popemobile,” his trademark vehicle, which Israeli security deemed unsafe for most locations on this visit.
Meanwhile the Vatican sought to clarify issues its spokesman said were misreported.
“The pope was never in the Hitler Youth, never, never, never,” the Rev. Federico Lombardi told reporters in Jerusalem.
He said that the Pope, like all other youths in Germany, was forcibly drafted into the Wehrmacht for a short time till his capture by the Allied forces. However, in “Salt of the Earth,” then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said that he was automatically enrolled into the Hitler Youth: “At first we weren’t, but when the compulsory Hitler Youth was introduced in 1941, my brother was obliged to join. I was still too young, but later, as a seminarian, I was registered in the HY. As soon as I was out of the seminary, I never went back.”
Lombardi did not explain the discrepancy.
“It was not his choice,” Lombardi said. “If you know the Pope you now he is absolutely not a militaristic person. He was compelled to be in this group.”
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