Jerusalem patriarch: Find new ways to break cycle of violence

Published: 2008-03-24

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- The political situation in the Holy Land has become deadlocked and new means must be found to break the cycle of violence, said Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem in his Easter homily March 23. Politicians have come to accept the "routine of death," believing that they only need to govern it without trying to find a solution that can give people a new life. Criticizing both Palestinians and Israelis for recent violence, the patriarch said the continuing bloodshed in the Gaza Strip and the murder of eight Jewish seminary students at a yeshiva in Jerusalem are "no more than sterile repetitions of the events of all the past years." Life in the Holy Land, he said, has become "a permanent cross." "We will not stop repeating that security cannot be achieved by inflicting insecurity on others," said Patriarch Sabbah during a Mass at Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

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