European, North American bishops criticize Israeli security wall

Published: 2004-01-15

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- Bishops from Europe and North America criticized Israel's construction of a "security wall" and condemned recent Palestinian terrorist attacks. The bishops said that the security wall "appears to be a permanent structure dividing families, isolating them from their farmland and their livelihoods and cutting off religious institutions. We express our condolences for the deaths that have occurred during our stay and affirm our opposition to bloodshed," they said in the statement issued Jan. 15 at the conclusion of their four-day meeting in the Holy Land. Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, noted that the U.S. bishops already had communicated their opposition to the wall to U.S. President George W. Bush. Auxiliary Bishop William Kenney of Stockholm, Sweden, a member of the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community, and Archbishop Patrick Kelly of Liverpool, England, vice president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, said they would report their concerns about the wall to their respective conferences.

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