Holy Land leaders reiterate calls for peace, encourage Christians

Published: 2004-12-28

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (CNS) -- Christian leaders in the Holy Land reiterated calls for peace and encouraged a shrinking Christian population to take heart despite the trials of living as members of a minority in an occupied land. "It is time to conquer the violence in the souls and hearts of the individuals (and) of the leaders," Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem said in a Christmas Eve homily delivered at St. Catherine's Church in Bethlehem Dec. 24. The church is adjacent to the Church of the Nativity. "It is time for all mankind, for Palestine and for Israel, to conquer the evil of the violence in themselves, in order to give birth to a new society of brothers and sisters, in which no one will be subject to the other, no one will be occupied by the other, no one will be the cause of the insecurity of the other, no one will deprive the other of his freedom and his right to live with full dignity as a human being with his own religious, national or political convictions," he said. A Christmas statement from leaders of Jerusalem's Christian churches said Bethlehem needed "special attention" in order to "remain the town of peace" of the Christmas carol. They said the city was being transformed into a "big prison" surrounded by the Israeli security barrier.

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