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May 22, 2002
Franciscan: Nativity standoff needs careful study, reconstruction
Work of restoring faith, dignity and hope for the future now begins, priest says
By Stephen Steele
WASHINGTON (CNS) — The occupation and siege of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity need to be reconstructed carefully before blaming either side, said a spokesman for the Franciscans in the Holy Land.
"We now need to reconstruct with precision the genesis and evolution of this surreal and absurd ordeal," said the spokesman, Franciscan Father David Jaeger.
"One thing is, however, overwhelmingly clear: the need to act without further delay on the Catholic Church's longstanding demand for effective, enforceable international guarantees for the holy places," he said.
The spokesman also called on Israeli authorities to be lenient in their treatment of the peace activists who hid inside the West Bank church.
"This is not the time for petty vindictiveness. The situation is resolved; please let them go back to their homes without imposing any hardships," he said.
Father Jaeger told Catholic News Service in Washington May 10 that the standoff could have been resolved quickly if both parties had not rejected an earlier proposal similar to the final agreement.
The spokesman said that, while he was not willing to lay blame for the standoff, he believed both sides could have done things differently and prevented such a long and bitter situation.
"Obviously, the invasion and occupation of the shrine by armed men was a violation of applicable legal norms, as pointed out by the Holy See," he said.
"Likewise, the siege of the basilica was wrong. It was also wrong, as our order has stated, to use food as a weapon of war. It was wrong for snipers to target, wound and kill people inside the sacred zone," he said.
Twenty-three Franciscan friars and four Franciscan sisters were inside the church at the conclusion of the standoff. Six friars had been ordered out earlier for serious medical reasons, Father Jaeger said.
"We embrace with love and admiration our Franciscan brothers and sisters who have persevered through great danger and difficulty at their posts," he said.
In Rome, the minister general of the Franciscans said the end of the "occupation and siege" of the Church of the Nativity and the surrounding complex is "a sigh of relief for the whole Christian world," especially for the Armenian and Greek Orthodox monks and the Franciscan friars and nuns who "offered themselves as guarantees of safety against the threat of a possible massacre."
"We are aware that this is only one step in a journey of reconciliation and understanding which appears long and difficult. There remains regret for the sufferings, injuries and deaths that could have been avoided if the proposals made for a solution a month ago would have been accepted," said Father Giacomo Bini, the minister general.
Franciscan Father Giovanni Battistelli, who entered the church May 10 shortly after the Palestinians left, told Vatican Radio that the inside of the church was "desolation."
"My first impression was of desolation, because there are blankets everywhere, and everything is dirty; all of the Palestinians were sleeping in the church," he said.
"Going down into the grotto," where according to tradition Jesus was born, "I saw that what people had said about the mosaics was partially true; some were hit by bullets and damaged. It was desolation."
The Vatican's diplomatic representative to Israel and the Palestinian territories, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, told Vatican Radio he was praying that the values that the Church of the Nativity represents — love, justice, peace and reconciliation — would "enter into the lives and thinking of the Israeli and Palestinian peoples."
The archbishop said the whole long negotiating process was "a symbol of the path to follow to reach peace between the Israelis and Palestinians."
The two peoples, he said, cannot continue to see each other only as threats, but must recognize they must find a way to live together.
"At this time, I would say that nothing has remained sacred. It is not just the holy places that were violated, but children, the life of children, of pregnant women, of old people. There is no longer respect for anyone or anything.
"Therefore, with the end of the occupation of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, there must begin the no-less-important work of restoring faith, restoring dignity, restoring hope for the future in these two peoples," the archbishop said.
Contributing to this story were Cindy Wooden and John Norton in Rome.
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