Patriarch says Israelis, Palestinians have chance for moment of grace

Published: 2005-12-27

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (CNS) -- Israeli and Palestinian leaders have a chance to create "a moment of grace ... with a complete stop of all violence and all vengeance," Latin-rite Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem said in his Christmas homily. "If our leaders have a sincere will, they can ... allow a new future to begin, a new land to be rebuilt, in which new hearts, better than walls and all military actions, will ensure the security of Israelis, and for the Palestinians, freedom and the end of occupation," the patriarch said in his midnight Mass homily at St. Catherine's Church, adjacent to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas attended midnight Mass. Addressing the Palestinian leaders present and Israeli leaders, the patriarch said: "Christmas says the ways in this land sanctified by God are ways of peace, based on justice and equality between the two peoples, no one superior to the other, no one under submission to the other. The two must be equals in dignity, in rights and in duty."

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