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MARONITE CARDINAL BRINGS CONTROVERSY TO POPE'S JERUSALEM VISIT
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/61bcc59e-e26a-11e3-89fd-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz32YhqA4OP
May 23, 2014 5:10 pm
By John Reed in Jerusalem
©AFP
When Pope Francis arrives in Jerusalem on Sunday during his three-day
visit to the Holy Land, another guest will join him on a less-noted,
but wholly unprecedented and politically charged visit: the Patriarch
of Lebanon's Maronite Catholic church.
Cardinal Mar Beshara Boutros Rai will be the first leader of the
church - which claims 1m adherents in the Middle East and millions
more overseas - to visit Israel since its founding in 1948. Israel
has no relations with Lebanon and officially regards its northern
neighbour as an enemy state.
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Patriarch Rai is making the trip to Jerusalem despite sharp criticism
from Hizbollah, the militant group which is a dominant political force
in Lebanon, and others who oppose breaking the diplomatic cordon around
Israel because of its occupation of Palestinian lands seized in1967.
Ibrahim Amin al-Sayed, head of Hizbollah's political
council, said last week that the trip carried "risks and
drawbacksâ~@~I.â~@~I.â~@~I.â~@~Iin terms of repercussions at the
level of Lebanon and of the Israeli entity."
Lebanon and Israel do not allow their citizens to visit each other's
countries; under Lebanese law citizens who do go can be charged
with treason.
"Doesn't modern technology, such as Skype, provide means to communicate
with the imprisoned flock without having to go through the oppressive
jailer?" a group of Lebanon-based activists who favour boycotting
Israel wrote to the cardinal in an open letter published on May 5.
Explaining his visit, the Maronite patriarch said that because the
leader of the Roman Catholic communion was going to the Holy Land and
Jerusalem - a diocese of the Maronite church - "it's normal that the
patriarch should welcome him".
However, in a concession to the delicacy surrounding the visit,
Patriarch Rai will not meet any Israeli officials, nor is Israel's
government commenting on it.
Cardinal Rai will not be part of the Pope's official delegation,
but will arrive with him in the Palestinian city of Bethlehem from
Amman for mass on Sunday.
He will be one of several eastern Catholic patriarchs accompanying the
Pope on some or all stations of his visit, including the head of the
Greek, Chaldean, Syrian, Coptic, and Armenian rites. In Jerusalem the
Pope will meet Bartholomew, Patriarch of Constantinople, at the church
of the Holy Sepulchre, the centrepiece of a visit meant to showcase
reconciliation between the Catholic and Orthodox Christian communions.
Pope Francis will also on Monday visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust
remembrance centre and lay a wreath at the tomb of Theodor Herzl,
the founder of Zionism - a move that Palestinian activists have
criticised as a "whitewash" of the occupation. Cardinal Rai will not
join him there.
Israel has about 10,000 Maronite Christians, about three-quarters of
whom lived there before the founding of the Jewish state. The remaining
2,500 were affiliated with the Israeli-sponsored south Lebanon army
and left when Israeli troops evacuated the country in 2000.
Members of the community are delighted about the cardinal's arrival.
"Our brother Muslims can go from Israel to Mecca to make the hajj -
more than 10,000 go there every year - but we Maronites cannot go to
Lebanon," says Sobhy Makhoul, chancellor of the Maronite patriarchate
in Jerusalem, who is coordinating the church leader's visit to Israel.
"If we can't go there, he can come to us."
After the Pope's return to Rome on Monday, Patriarch Rai will visit
Maronite communities in Galilee and other Israeli cities.
The trip will include a stop in Bar Am, the site of a Christian
village near the Lebanese border destroyed by Israeli forces in 1953.
The village's uprooted residents, who appealed their eviction and later
won an Israeli Supreme Court ruling, were never allowed to return to
the site of their homes, where a national park and kibbutz now stand.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/61bcc59e-e26a-11e3-89fd-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz32YhqA4OP
May 23, 2014 5:10 pm
By John Reed in Jerusalem
©AFP
When Pope Francis arrives in Jerusalem on Sunday during his three-day
visit to the Holy Land, another guest will join him on a less-noted,
but wholly unprecedented and politically charged visit: the Patriarch
of Lebanon's Maronite Catholic church.
Cardinal Mar Beshara Boutros Rai will be the first leader of the
church - which claims 1m adherents in the Middle East and millions
more overseas - to visit Israel since its founding in 1948. Israel
has no relations with Lebanon and officially regards its northern
neighbour as an enemy state.
More
ON THIS TOPIC
Israel closes in on gas supply deals Ex-Israeli PM Olmert jailed for
six years Action urged on Israeli far-right groups Accusations of
blame fly in Mideast talks
IN MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA
Egypt donors flock to fund Sisi campaign UAE stops using former British
officers as military trainers Libyans divided on Haftar Libya braces
for further conflict
Patriarch Rai is making the trip to Jerusalem despite sharp criticism
from Hizbollah, the militant group which is a dominant political force
in Lebanon, and others who oppose breaking the diplomatic cordon around
Israel because of its occupation of Palestinian lands seized in1967.
Ibrahim Amin al-Sayed, head of Hizbollah's political
council, said last week that the trip carried "risks and
drawbacksâ~@~I.â~@~I.â~@~I.â~@~Iin terms of repercussions at the
level of Lebanon and of the Israeli entity."
Lebanon and Israel do not allow their citizens to visit each other's
countries; under Lebanese law citizens who do go can be charged
with treason.
"Doesn't modern technology, such as Skype, provide means to communicate
with the imprisoned flock without having to go through the oppressive
jailer?" a group of Lebanon-based activists who favour boycotting
Israel wrote to the cardinal in an open letter published on May 5.
Explaining his visit, the Maronite patriarch said that because the
leader of the Roman Catholic communion was going to the Holy Land and
Jerusalem - a diocese of the Maronite church - "it's normal that the
patriarch should welcome him".
However, in a concession to the delicacy surrounding the visit,
Patriarch Rai will not meet any Israeli officials, nor is Israel's
government commenting on it.
Cardinal Rai will not be part of the Pope's official delegation,
but will arrive with him in the Palestinian city of Bethlehem from
Amman for mass on Sunday.
He will be one of several eastern Catholic patriarchs accompanying the
Pope on some or all stations of his visit, including the head of the
Greek, Chaldean, Syrian, Coptic, and Armenian rites. In Jerusalem the
Pope will meet Bartholomew, Patriarch of Constantinople, at the church
of the Holy Sepulchre, the centrepiece of a visit meant to showcase
reconciliation between the Catholic and Orthodox Christian communions.
Pope Francis will also on Monday visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust
remembrance centre and lay a wreath at the tomb of Theodor Herzl,
the founder of Zionism - a move that Palestinian activists have
criticised as a "whitewash" of the occupation. Cardinal Rai will not
join him there.
Israel has about 10,000 Maronite Christians, about three-quarters of
whom lived there before the founding of the Jewish state. The remaining
2,500 were affiliated with the Israeli-sponsored south Lebanon army
and left when Israeli troops evacuated the country in 2000.
Members of the community are delighted about the cardinal's arrival.
"Our brother Muslims can go from Israel to Mecca to make the hajj -
more than 10,000 go there every year - but we Maronites cannot go to
Lebanon," says Sobhy Makhoul, chancellor of the Maronite patriarchate
in Jerusalem, who is coordinating the church leader's visit to Israel.
"If we can't go there, he can come to us."
After the Pope's return to Rome on Monday, Patriarch Rai will visit
Maronite communities in Galilee and other Israeli cities.
The trip will include a stop in Bar Am, the site of a Christian
village near the Lebanese border destroyed by Israeli forces in 1953.
The village's uprooted residents, who appealed their eviction and later
won an Israeli Supreme Court ruling, were never allowed to return to
the site of their homes, where a national park and kibbutz now stand.