Located in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem, the tomb has been covered by marble cladding since at least 1555 A.D., and most likely centuries earlier.Read more

The Vatican says the good relations between the Holy See and Palestine were noted during the meeting, "as were the positive role of Christians and the activity of the Church in Palestinian society, enshrined in the Global Agreement of 2015."

Francis and Abbas also discussed reconciliation among the Palestinian people, as well as efforts to reactivate the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians, and to reach a two-state solution.

They hope for a renewed commitment on the part of the international community to meet the legitimate aspirations of both peoples.

The Vatican says particular attention was reserved for the status of Jerusalem.

Francis and Abbas underlined the importance of recognising and preserving Jerusalem's identity and the universal value of the Holy City for the three Abrahamic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The 20-minute meeting concluded with a discussion about other conflicts afflicting the Middle East. The urgency of promoting paths of peace and dialogue, with the contribution of the religious communities, to combat every form of extremism and fundamentalism was flagged in this respect.

Source

• Crux Now
• Vatican News
• Image: BBC.com

The taster involves attending the Anglican Studies weekend at Hiruharama/Jerusalem on the Whanganui River from Friday 31 August to Sunday 2 September. Continue reading

Besides his state duties, William will visit the tomb of his great-grandmother Princess Alice of Battenberg and Greece.

His great-grandmother has been recognised as a Righteous Among the Nations, the highest honor Israel grants to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

She is buried in a crypt below a Russian Orthodox church in east Jerusalem. Read more

The Texan, who was invited to lead the blessing by President Donald Trump, has a history of strongly disliking a range of individuals and groups.

According to recordings from his radio show "Pathway to Victory", Jeffress also thinks Mormons, Muslims, Jews, and most Catholics are destined for hell. Read more

As a result major Christian denominations, including the Catholic Church, have promised to reopen the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

It had been closed for three days as a protest against the proposed taxation regime.

The church - revered as the site where Jesus was crucified and resurrected - reopened yesterday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said a professional team would negotiate with church officials to "formulate a solution".

Jerusalem's major Christian churches say they are looking forward to engaging with the team.

They hope Jerusalem "remains a place where the three monotheistic faiths may live and thrive together."

Jerusalem's Mayor Nir Barkat says the taxes would affect only commercial properties, not houses of worship.

He said other cities followed similar practices worldwide.

"As the mayor of the city of Jerusalem, my goal and role is to make sure people pay their taxes," he said before the tax plans were suspended.

"We have no negative or bad intentions here."

The churches say Barkat's taxation plans undermine a longstanding status quo.

They say their non-church properties - such as hotels, restaurants and offices - have a religious need, as they provide services to pilgrims and local church members.

Israeli Cabinet Minister Tzachi Hanegbi will lead the government's negotiating committee.

Committee members will include representatives from Jerusalem and the finance, foreign and interior ministries.

"The team will negotiate with the representatives of the churches to resolve the issue," a government statement said.

The Prime Minister's has also asked Hanegbi to look into land sales in Jerusalem, following a request by the heads of major churches.

Until he has reviewed the issue, all pending legislation on land sales will be shelved.

Source

• Crux Now
• Haaretz
• Samoa Observer
• Image: Catholic Bridge

Churches have been exempt from paying property tax for centuries.

"The civil authorities have always recognised and respected the great contribution of the Christian churches, which invest billions in building schools, hospitals, and homes, many for the elderly and disadvantaged in the Holy Land," a statement from church leaders says.

They have asked city officials to retract their intention to tax church properties.

They want them to "ensure that the status quo, which was sanctioned by the sacred history, is maintained and the character of the Holy City of Jerusalem is not violated."

The church leaders believe the taxes would damage a number of benefits Christian churches offer Jerusalem as well as its ability to minister to its communities both in Jerusalem and internationally.

Early this month the Jerusalem municipality issued fines of nearly $190 million to properties owned by the United Nations and churches.

The municipality cited a new legal opinion that found the properties are not legally defined as places of worship.

It has exempted properties that are used "for prayer, for the teaching of religion or for needs arising from that."

Other church properties must pay property tax.

The Catholic church received the biggest bill of all the religious institutions.

It owes over $3.3 million.

Source

• The Catholic Spirit
• Sight Magazine
• Image: Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation

Erdoğan was returning a visit Francis made to Turkey in 2014.

Vatican sources say that at the meeting Francis and Erdoğan discussed "bilateral relations between the Holy See and Turkey, the situation within the country and the condition of the Catholic community, Turkey's role in receiving refugees and the challenges this poses".

They also discussed "the situation in the Middle East, with particular reference to the status of Jerusalem, highlighting the need to promote peace and stability in the region through dialogue and negotiation, with respect for human rights and international law."

Both Erdogan and Francis are opposed to U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

While they were meeting, Kurdish protestors holding signs calling Turkey a state-sponsor of terrorism tried to enter St. Peter's Square, but police prevented them from doing so.

They were protesting about Turkey's military offensive on Kurdish areas in northern Syria, which began on 20 January, and has resulted in civilian casualties.

Reports say several protesters also held signs calling for the release of Abdullah Öcalan. Öcalan is a Kurdish nationalist leader who has been jailed in Turkey since 1999.

A group of international press freedom groups also expressed concern about the Pope's meeting with Erdoğan. They released an open letter calling on the pope to bring up Turkey's crackdown on independent journalists with Erdoğan.

Signatories included the International Press Institute, European Center for Press and Media Freedom, PEN International, and Reporters without Borders.

• RadioFreeEurope RadioLiberty
• CruxNow
• Reuters
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: RFE/RL

As General Allenby's troops marched through Bab al-Khalil, launching a century of settler colonialism across Palestine, prime minister David Lloyd George heralded the city's capture as "a Christmas present for the British people".

In a few months' time, we mark another such anniversary: 70 years since the Palestinian Nakba of 1948, the catastrophic destruction of the Palestinian polity; the violent dispossession of most of its people with their forced conversion into disenfranchised refugees; the colonial occupation, annexation and control of their land; and the imposition of martial law over those who managed to remain.

The current US president's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel bookends a century of such events: from the Balfour declaration in November 1917 to the partition plan of 1947; from the Nakba of 1948 to the Naksa of 1967 - with its annexation of Jerusalem, the occupation of the rest of Palestine, further mass expulsions of Palestinians including from East and West Jerusalem, and the invaders' razing of entire ancient neighbourhoods in the city.

Donald Trump's declaration could easily be read as one more outrage in his growing collection of chaotic and destructive policies, this one perhaps designed to distract from his more prosaic, personal problems with the law.

It is viewed as the act of a volatile superpower haplessly endorsing illegal military conquest and consolidating the "acquisition of territory by force" (a practice prohibited and rejected by the UN and the basic tenets of international law). And it is seen alongside a long list of domestic and international blunders.

However, this analysis obscures what happens each day in occupied Palestine, and hides what will surely happen next - unless governments, parliaments, institutions, unions and, most of all, citizens take measures to actively resist it. Continue reading

• Karma Nabulsi is fellow in politics at St Edmund Hall, and teaches at Oxford University.

"It has been the capital of the Israeli people since ancient times," said the President. "It's undeniable, it's just a fact."

Christians in Bethlehem responded to the news by burning photos of the American president. They held signs saying: "Jerusalem, Palestine's heart, is not up to negotiations."

This may come as a surprise to many in the West. We probably assume that Palestine's Christians prefer the democratic Israelis to their Islamist-heavy countrymen. Sadly, that's not the case.

In 2003, Israel began enclosing Bethlehem behind a 23-foot concrete wall. Its purpose was to keep suicide bombers from crossing out of the West Bank and into Israel during the Intifada.

But even after the worst unrest settled, the wall kept growing. And Christians living in the town, who have never taken up arms against Israel, are suffering for it.

As Hanan Nasrallah, a Palestinian employee of the Catholic Relief Services, put it: "The separation wall… cuts family from each other.

"People get humiliated at checkpoints. People do not have many opportunities to improve their living standards. So, therefore, Christians who can afford to, are trying to leave this country."

It's not just families that are being split up, either. The wall also runs through the neighbouring village of Beit Jala, which is 80 percent Christian.

Upon completion, it will cut off a Salesian monastery from its sister-convent and the rest of the local Christian community.

The plight of Beit Jala's Christians prompted Cardinal Vincent Nichols to write a letter to William Hague in 2012, asking him to appeal to Tel Aviv directly.

And this doesn't even touch on those Palestinian Christians displaced from their historic homes by encroaching settlements, or those terrorised by "price tag attacks" carried out by radical Israeli nationalists.

These are not acts of the Israeli government, though it is the government's responsibility - both morally and under international law - to respect the rights of Palestinians, whatever their religion. Continue reading

• Michael Davis is the Catholic Herald's US editor

At the same time, President Trump announced plans to eventually relocate the US Embassy to the holy city.

Pope Francis responded to the change in US policy, saying he wants the "status quo" to remain.

He says he is "profoundly concerned" about recent developments concerning Jerusalem.

He declared the city a unique and sacred place for Christians, Jews and Muslims and that it has a "special vocation for peace."

He appealed "that everyone respects the status quo of the city," according to UN resolutions.

"I pray to the Lord that its identity is preserved and strengthened for the benefit of the Holy Land, the Middle East and the whole world ...

"... and that wisdom and prudence prevail to prevent new elements of tension from being added to a global context already convulsed by so many cruel conflicts," he said on Wednesday.

Others have expressed concern about Trump's decision.

The Middle East has strongly objected to the move.

Carefully worded rebukes have also flowed in from US allies.

The US position in 1947 held that Jerusalem was a corpus seperatum: an internationally controlled entity that belonged to neither Arab nor Jew.

Bit by bit this view has altered. Firstly it adopted a policy of "limited internationalisation", while still opposing both Arabs and Israelis claiming Jerusalem as their capital.

Nonetheless, Israel has sought to claim Jerusalem as its capital.

Following the six-day war in 1967, a new policy was adopted.

This held that neither Israelis nor Arabs could claim Jerusalem as their capital.

The Vatican has long sought an internationally guaranteed status for Jerusalem that safeguards its sacred character for Jews, Muslims and Christians.

Francis spoke by telephone on Tuesday with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, after President Donald Trump forewarned Abbas of his decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The Vatican said the call with Francis was made at Abbas's initiative.

Source

• The Washington Post
• The Washington Post
• National Catholic Register
• La Croix
• Zenit
• JSTOR
• Image: Time Magazine

Image:

The last time the tomb was restored was in 1810. It is considered one of the most sacred sites in Christianity.

Inside the tomb is a burial bed made of rock, where Jesus's body is believed to have been placed.Read more

Well that's the impression I get here in Palestine, where I work at Bethlehem University.

Bethlehem University is home to over 3300 students and 400 employees and over the past two weeks it has been closed for seven days due to the worsening situation here on the West Bank, in Jerusalem and parts of Israel.

The closure of the University means that our students' education is being continually disrupted.

At the moment it is too worrying for our students to come to the University from Hebron and Jerusalem (40% come from Jerusalem) due to the increased scrutiny at checkpoints by the army and the possibility of revenge attacks brought about by the random stabbing attacks that have occurred particularly in Jerusalem.

Two of these closures were brought about by a general strike that was called by the Governor of the Bethlehem region in protest over the shooting and killing of two young Palestinians, one thirteen and the other 26.

The thirteen year old came from the Aida refugee camp about ten minutes walk from the University. It seems he was shot by mistake by an Israeli sniper.

The twenty-six year old from the Duheisha refugee camp was shot during a protest on the Bethlehem side of Rachel's Tomb on Tuesday. Today marks the twelfth day in a row there have been protests here in Bethlehem.

Normally on a Friday the young people gather and throw rocks at the surveillance tower in Bethlehem and the Israeli army responds by entering the northern end of Bethlehem, firing tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets.

Due to the escalating violence the IDF have been given permission to fire live bullets.

It broke my heart the other day to learn that a 13 year old Palestinian boy had stabbed a 13 year old Israeli boy who was out riding his bike.

There is no rationale that can excuse these random acts of violence just as there is no rationale to excuse the disproportionate response of the Israeli forces.

• The majority of the Palestinian attackers have been shot and killed.
• Palestinians and Israelis are living in fear.
• Children are living in fear.

While this is happening those in authority on either side are apportioning blame to the other.

I cannot help thinking that the Israeli security responses, that include the destruction of the family homes of those Palestinians who attack and kill Israelis, the blocking off of neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem, the refusal to return the bodies of alleged attackers to their Palestinian families for burial will only further inflame the situation.

Yet there are signs of hope.

Yesterday I read of a gathering of Israelis and Palestinians who gathered for a vigil for peace.

It would seem that the Palestinian fight for statehood has gone off the radar of most people outside of the Middle East.

The fact remains that Palestine is still occupied by Israel.

It also seems that Palestine will continue to be occupied into the future, particularly if more Israeli illegal settlements are allowed to be built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

It is a complicated situation here with no easy solutions.

Bethlehem University is the only Catholic University in the Holy Land and commenced in 1973 under the direction of the De La Salle Brothers.

The current Vice Chancellor is Br Peter Bray, originally from Taranaki.

We are grateful here for the 3000 pilgrims that visit us here at Bethlehem University and listen to the heartfelt stories of our students for whom the occupation is a daily reality.

Please hold the Holy Land in your prayers.

• Br Mark McKeon is De La Salle Brother from Australia who before coming to Bethlehem taught in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. He is currently working at Bethlehem University as the Vice President for Human Resources and Administrative Affairs.

Sister Christina plays the organ and looks after the church and grounds at St Joseph's Convent. She also helps out in the vege garden of the local school in Ranana, the last rural school left on the Whanganui River.

Sister Christina never dreamed she would become a nun, especially after a priest said she wouldn't cut it.

But almost 50 years later, she is having the last laugh, as she is about to celebrate her golden jubilee with the order. For her, life alongside the river is perfect.

"People come here to recharge their batteries. It's a real paradise."

This Town: A River Runs Through It screens on July 29, 8.30pm, TV One.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: 4.bp.blogspot.com

The Western press has become less an observer of this conflict than an actor in it, a role with consequences for the millions of people trying to comprehend current events, including policymakers who depend on journalistic accounts to understand a region where they consistently seek, and fail, to productively intervene.

An essay I wrote for Tablet on this topic in the aftermath of the war sparked intense interest.

In the article, based on my experiences between 2006 and 2011 as a reporter and editor in the Jerusalem bureau of the Associated Press, one of the world's largest news organizations, I pointed out the existence of a problem and discussed it in broad terms.

Using staffing numbers, I illustrated the disproportionate media attention devoted to this conflict relative to other stories, and gave examples of editorial decisions that appeared to be driven by ideological considerations rather than journalistic ones.

I suggested that the cumulative effect has been to create a grossly oversimplified story—a kind of modern morality play in which the Jews of Israel are displayed more than any other people on earth as examples of moral failure.

This is a thought pattern with deep roots in Western civilization.

But how precisely does this thought pattern manifest itself in the day-to-day functioning, or malfunctioning, of the press corps?

To answer this question, I want to explore the way Western press coverage is shaped by unique circumstances here in Israel and also by flaws affecting the media beyond the confines of this conflict.

In doing so, I will draw on my own experiences and those of colleagues. These are obviously limited and yet, I believe, representative. Continue reading

• Matti Friedman in The Atlantic

Matti Friedman's work as a reporter has taken him to Lebanon, Morocco, Egypt, Moscow, and Washington, DC, and to conflicts in Israel and the Caucasus.

Caritas Jerusalem is providing medical assistance, food and other necessities to the thousands of vulnerable people affected by the escalating conflict.

More than 775 people have been killed during Israeli attacks, with more than 100,000 Palestinians displaced.

The pledge of $20,000 from Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is possible because of the public's generosity through the Caritas Gifts, Gifts of Peace programme (www.caritasgifts.org.nz)

Much-needed donations are now being accepted to implement the humanitarian response as soon as possible.

Continue reading

The Pope is scheduled to celebrate Mass in the Cenacle, believed to be the site of the Last Supper, during his visit to the Holy Land from May 24-26.

The site is also held by Jews to be the tomb of King David.

Some Orthodox Jews fear the Pope's visit to the Cenacle will lead to the Israeli government turning portions of the site over to the Vatican.

"When 'the crusaders' come here making the sign of the cross and all kinds of rituals, this place will become idolatrous for us, and we will not have the right to pray there any more," ultra-Orthodox Jewish protester Yitzhak Batzon told AFP.

The protest was on May 12.

Continue reading

So many of the rich images, words, and themes that will recur at the Easter Vigil are hinted in the day's readings and prayers — the anointing of David with oil, the enlightening of the man born blind in John, and the Letter to the Ephesians' call to "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."

Like the paschal exsultet in the middle of the darkness of the Easter Vigil, Laetare Sunday is a bright little burst of light and joy in the midst of Lent.

And, not coincidentally, it coincides with these first uncertain, hesitant bursts of springtime found in European and North American climates at this time of year.

Here in Washington, D.C., where I live, we have had 70-degree days followed by snow in the past week, and very confused crocuses attempting to push their way towards the sun.

The name "Laetare Sunday" comes from the introit text -

"Laetare Jerusalem: et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam"

"Rejoice, O Jerusalem: and come together all you that love her" Continue reading.

Brian Flanagan, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Theology at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia.

Source: Daily Theology

Image: Marymount University

The Hamas government has issued a ban on coeducational schools, which means that the five Christian schools on the strip, two Catholic and three Protestant, may have to close. Officials insist the decision was not directed at Christians, but they happen to run the only coeducational institutions in the territory.

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, plans to meet Gaza's prime minister to appeal the move. Among other things, presumably he'll point out that these Christian schools serve a largely Muslim population.

For purposes of this column, the way I learned about the situation is almost as revealing as the order itself. As it happens, I received an email from the Israeli embassy to the Holy See, passing along a brief article from the Catholic Herald in the U.K.

Israeli officials clearly felt the story merited attention, and for fairly obvious reasons: It makes Hamas look bad.

It was a small reminder of a larger point: It's often difficult to tell the full story of anti-Christian persecution around the world and a main reason why is the distorting effect of politics, which tends to bring only part of the picture into view. Nowhere is that more clear than the Holy Land.

Many Arab Christians, in tandem with their liberal sympathizers in the West, emphasize the negative impact of Israeli security policies while downplaying Islamic radicalism. On the other side, Israelis and their conservative allies insist that Israel's Christian population is actually growing while pouncing on every perceived Palestinian outrage.

The truth is that Christians face hardships on both sides of the divide, and often for similar reasons. Continue reading

Sources

• John L. Allen Jr in National Catholic Reporter
• Image: The Counter Jihad Report

John L. Allen Jr is a senior columnist for National Catholic Reporter

And in Jerusalem there were 27,000 Christians in 1948, but today there are only 5000, according to Professor Hanna Issa, professor of international law and secretary-general of the Islamic-Christian Committee for the Protection of Jerusalem and the Holy Places.

The drastic decrease of the percentage of the Christian presence in the Holy Land is due to emigration and to the population growth rates of Christians being much lower than those recorded in the Muslim majority component of the Palestinian population, Professor Issa told the Fides news service.

According to Father Manuel Musallam, a longtime parish priest in Gaza and now with the foreign relations department of the Fatah political party, where he is in charge of relations with the Christian communities, serious action is needed to deal with the political, economic and social factors that encourage the flight of Christians from the Holy Land.

Christians emigrate to seek new prospects for work and study, and to raise a family, Father Musallam said.

"From Gaza and other areas," he says, "people go away for lack of minimum requirements to guarantee a dignified existence."

In Jerusalem, many were persuaded to sell their homes because they received high offers that were enough to ensure the transfer of the whole family to some Western country, where they would have a higher standard of living.

Father Musallam called on the Palestinian Authority to put in place measures to support a permanent Christian presence in the Holy Land.

He said Christians need protection of the right to education for students, access to the labour market and the possibility of establishing a home for new families.

Source:

Fides

Image: Seetheholyland