Photo via catholicanchor.org

Alaskans meet struggling Christians in the Holy Land

In May, Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz and a group of Alaska Catholics traveled to the Holy Land, where Jesus Christ preached, suffered, died and rose. The Alaskans also visited with some of the descendants of the very first Christians who walked with Jesus 2,000 years ago. The shrinking number of Christians in the area are forgotten “brothers and sisters in the faith,” said Archbishop Schwietz — they are Christians being forced out of the land of Christ, reports CatholicAnchor.org.

CRUSADE FOR JUSTICE

The two-week visit was sponsored by the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, a chivalric, papal order dedicated to the support of Christian holy sites and Christians in the Holy Land.

Since the very beginning of Christianity, Christians of Jesus’ homeland have maintained holy sites and churches there — enabling others to visit those precious places, like the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, where Christ was buried and rose.

Across the centuries, it has been a dangerous mission for both residents and pilgrims.

In 1070, the Seljuk Turks conquered Jerusalem, suppressed Christianity and captured, murdered or sold into slavery Christian pilgrims making their way to the Holy Land.

In 1095, Pope Urban II launched the first Crusade — in order to retake the Christian sites and safeguard the faithful.

One of the knights of that Crusade, Godfrey Bouillon, gathered a group to protect the Christians caring for the Holy Sepulchre. After a thousand years, the order of knights and ladies still exists. Their mission is “to crusade for equality of men, justice for all, and peace in the Holy Land so that Christian, Jew, and Muslim may live side by side in love of God and each other.”

NO COUNTRY FOR CHRISTIANS

This work became especially difficult in 1948, when Israel declared independence and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ensued. Since then, Israel has tightly controlled the lives of Palestinians — including Christians. Many who were born in Israel and have ancient family roots in the area were confined to refugee camps in Gaza or driven to neighboring nations of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Those Christians are “men without a country,” explained John McCormick, an Anchorage physician who with his wife Tammy went on the pilgrimage with Archbishop Schwietz. The McCormicks have been nominated as members of the Holy Sepulchre Order.

In early June, in advance of a meeting of Catholic bishops of the Middle East, the Vatican released a paper on the plight of the Christians whom the pope has lamented, “suffer for their beliefs.”

“Ongoing political tension in the region have a direct influence on the lives of Christians,” the Vatican explained, “both as citizens and in their practice of religion, putting them in a particularly delicate and precarious situation.”

In particular, the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories “is creating difficulties in everyday life, inhibiting freedom of movement, the economy and religious life” for Christians, the Vatican stated. Even access to the holy places is “dependent on military permission, which is granted to some and denied to others on security grounds.”

Christians are not permitted to buy homes in Jewish quarters, and Muslims refuse to sell to them. In fact, Archbishop Schwietz – who visited the Holy Land 11 years ago — saw plentiful evidence of new Jewish settlements and Muslim construction in towns around Jerusalem and Galilee. But, he observed, “The thing you don’t see is any development of the Christians in Israel.”

Despite good educations, Christians have little access to jobs. Most are shopkeepers or tour guides.

They are treated as “second-class citizens,” Dr. McCormick said. The group’s Catholic tour guide, he said, pays the same taxes as do Israeli citizens but receives only a third of what citizens receive in the government-run medical program.

For Tammy McCormick, the level of injustice was shocking. “All of that was a huge eye-opener for me,” she said.

Both peoples deserve freedom and “a homeland of their own, within secure and internationally recognized borders,” Pope Benedict XVI stressed last year during his own pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

But the Israeli government says occupying Palestine is necessary for the security of the Jewish state, which is surrounded by Muslim animus.

At the same time, there is opposition even among some Christian sects abroad. “Certain Christian fundamentalist theologies use sacred Scripture to justify Israel’s occupation of Palestine,” the Vatican noted, “making the position of Christian Arabs an even more sensitive issue.”

THE DILEMMA

So Christians of the Holy Land face a daily dilemma – whether to stay or go. Increasingly, they leave.

Currently, there are only 180,000 Christians in Israel and Palestine – about 1.7 percent of the population.

The Latin Patriarch – the Latin Rite Catholic Archbishop in Jerusalem – often urges his little flock to maintain the Christian presence in the land of Christ – a message Pope Benedict XVI echoes frequently.

“I encourage the brothers and sisters who, in the East, share the inestimable gift of baptism, to persevere in the faith and, despite the many sacrifices, to stay where they were born,” he urged in June.

Dr. McCormick thinks that for those who continue on, “it’s a religious calling at this point.”

The Catholic seminary is “packed,” he added, “and they have a faith that we are taking way too casually here in America.”

The besieged Christians of the Holy Land, he said, are “as tough as nails.”

CONDITIONS OF PEACE

Meanwhile, the knights and ladies of the Holy Sepulchre are building “conditions of peace” for these Christians and everyone else, explained Dr. McCormick.

One of their projects involves supporting Catholic grade schools and high schools where Christian and Muslim students mix and “get to know each other as human beings,” said Archbishop Schwietz.

Also, the order has been raising funds to build an additional wing to a Catholic hospital in Jerusalem where Muslims, Jews and Christians receive care and Christians may be employed in jobs like nursing.

Archbishop Schwietz noted that Christians who aren’t knights or ladies can support such projects through the annual Good Friday collection. Dr. McCormick urged pilgrims also to patronize Christian stores in the Holy Land and petition U.S. politicians to press for better treatment of the Christians caught between Jews and Muslims.

“They are under tremendous assault from all directions,” he observed.

If Christians expect “our holy places will be respected,” and that pilgrims will have the opportunity to hear about them first-hand from “people who believe like us, who understand our tradition, our culture and all the subtleties,” it’s time to take a stand, said Dr. McCormick.

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TAGS: USA Israel Archbishop Roger Schwietz struggling Christians Christian holy sites Catholic Church

[07/13/2010]

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