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Story of the day:
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PAXCHRISTI-SABBAH May-25-2004 (730 words) xxxi
Latin patriarch tells those unsure on Holy Land: 'Come and see'
By Stephen Steele
Catholic News Service
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. (CNS) -- Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem has a message for those who are unsure of the situation in the Palestinian territories: "Come and see."
The patriarch said one side is so clearly the oppressed while the other side is so clearly the oppressor that the answers to what is needed for peace will become obvious even to a casual observer.
"The situation is very simple and clear; there is a people under oppression, under occupation. That is the source of every evil. Take away the oppression and you heal everything," Patriarch Sabbah told Catholic News Service during a May 23 interview at Seton Hall University in South Orange.
It was a point Patriarch Sabbah drove home during his speeches, homilies and conversations at a May 19-23 general assembly and conference of Pax Christi International, of which he is president.
He said the situation in the Holy Land grew more bewildering by the day. He criticized the Israelis for escalating the violence while talking peace; he criticized Palestinian extremists for defeating their cause through suicide bombings and terrorist acts.
He said recent actions by the Israelis, such as the raid of the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip and the creation of a security wall, were "illogical."
"They want peace and security, but they make more war," he said of the Israelis.
He said Israeli leaders preach a "pretend peace," while escalating random attacks on Palestinians.
He rejected the explanation by Israelis, who said incursions into Palestinian neighborhoods were needed to root out terrorists. Patriarch Sabbah said the Israeli actions caused terrorism.
He said Palestinian life has been uprooted by the construction of a security wall, which Israel said was necessary to stop terrorism, and frequent checkpoints.
"The wall has cut off the people from the center of life -- church, schools, hospitals, business centers," he said.
The wall, he said, "was a sign of hostility."
He said the U.S. government needs to pressure Israel to follow the "road map" peace plan, which envisioned the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.
"The role of the United States is important, but the United States is not doing what it is supposed to do. They have to tell Israel, 'This is the way for peace,'" he said.
"I can talk (to Israeli authorities), but it is useless," he said.
During his homily May 19 at a Mass that opened the general assembly, Patriarch Sabbah said that in war both sides lose their humanity.
"To kill, one must first kill what makes one human -- our compassion for others, our connection to each other as brothers and sisters of the living God," he said.
He called on Pax Christi delegates to hold their political leaders accountable for their actions and to do whatever they can to promote peace.
"We ... must appeal to the consciences of all those who lead our nations into the ways of death blindly, or with an erroneous religious conscience, thinking they are doing the will of God and trying to give their own ways of freedom to others," he said.
The patriarch said the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq underscored how the war was "a defeat for humanity."
Apologies over the alleged abuse were empty, he said, unless "the mentality -- the worldview -- that spawned such disregard for the value and dignity of human life is not also acknowledged and transformed."
Patriarch Sabbah traveled back and forth between Detroit and South Orange during the five-day period. In Detroit, he spoke at a May 22 dinner at Madonna University in support of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation; he also met with Detroit Cardinal Adam J. Maida May 24.
In between, he traveled back to the Pax Christi conference. He left for Detroit before the start of the conference's closing Mass May 23; his homily was read by Bishop Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of Kisangani, Congo.
In the homily, Patriarch Sabbah said peace can come to the Holy Land, but only through "mutual respect and reconciliation."
He said all acts of violence in the Holy Land must be condemned, but "we cannot escape the truth behind this conflict, which is the ongoing repression of one people by another."
"We must condemn the violence," he said, " but we must also acknowledge its root cause."
END
Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service.
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