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Catholic clerics pan possible separation of Hebrew and Arabic speakers
2003-119-2
5/28/2003
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[Episcopal News Service]
Roman Catholic clerics and academics have come out strongly against reported plans to divide the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem and to establish a new church jurisdiction of Hebrew-speaking Catholics distinct from Arabic-speaking dioceses.
Under the proposed change, the new jurisdiction in the Holy Land would answer directly to Rome and be independent of the local Latin Patriarch, Michel Sabbah. Archbishop Sabbah is a Christian Arab who supports the Palestinian national cause. Supporters of Sabbah have denounced any move that could isolate him from a portion of the Catholic community.
'I am a strong supporter of Michel Sabbah and [the plan] is an attempt to undermine the authority of the Latin Patriarch,' the Rev. Don Moore of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem told ENI.
Moore was reacting to an article published earlier in May in the weekly Jesuit journal America by Drew Christiansen, who is counselor for international affairs to the United States' Conference of Catholic Bishops, with special responsibility for the Middle East.
It was, said Moore, unfair to target the Latin Patriarch. 'Sabbah has been a great advocate of peace, reconciliation, of love between the peoples in the land,' he contended. 'He has been a voice of peace, understanding and I think that it is the type of voice the church needs.'
Moore noted that few Christians in the Holy Land were Hebrew-speakers, and maintained that therefore any change was unjustified. 'As I understand it, this is a proposal for another Patriarch,' he said.
In Moore's view, the Latin Patriarch expressed a balanced view of the current conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. 'He [Sabbah] is not anti-Israel,' Moore said. 'He has met with Jewish groups, with rabbis.'
Dr. Bernard Sabella of Bethlehem University, a Catholic and an expert on the local Christian community, suggested that the proposal might be politically motivated: 'It could be the fact that some people are sensitive to having an Arab head of church,' he said, but stressed the importance of having a single umbrella jurisdiction under which Catholics from both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict might meet, in the interest of promoting peace.
'It could provide the ground for possible prospects of working together, of talking together, reflecting together, rather than living in two separate worlds,' said Sabella. 'And if they do it [create a new jurisdiction], it's a disaster, it will go against reconciliation.'
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