The senior Roman Catholic church leader in the Holy Land has rejected claims that Pope John Paul II's forthcoming visit to the region is part of efforts by the Vatican to intervene in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.The Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem, Archbishop Michel Sabbah, told a news conference in Jerusalem on March 14 that the Pope's pilgrimage should not be dragged into the political arena. The visit was, he said, intended to symbolize the Pope's strong commitment to peace between all faiths.Archbishop Sabbah was responding to a journalist who asked whether the Vatican's recent decision to sign a document with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) indicated a desire by the Pope to "meddle" in local affairs.The Israeli government said the papal accord with the PLO called into question Jewish sovereignty over the whole of Jerusalem, which the Palestinians—as well as the Israelis who control it—claim as their political and religious capital.But Archbishop Sabbah said: "The Holy Father [the Pope] will pray. He will meet with all believers, with all Christians—Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants—with Muslims and Jews and all the heads of state."What he will deliver as a general message in all his speeches and homilies will be a message of love, reconciliation, of making peace. So this question of meddling or not meddling in the peace process is not a question that concerns the pilgrimage of the Holy Father."Archbishop Sabbah said the Pope's visit to Jerusalem would not strengthen either Palestinian or Israeli claims to the Holy City."He will visit Jerusalem as it is, but coming to visit and coming to pray will never be a confirmation or denial of any political rights," the patriarch said. "There is no relation at all between prayer and political rights or disputes. How Jerusalem is now it will remain, before the visit of the Pope and after the visit of the Pope. The status of Jerusalem is what is before the international community—before and after the visit of the Pope."The Pope will visit holy sites in Israel and the Palestinian territories from March 21 to 26, following a brief visit to Jordan. Controversy is already growing over John Paul's agreement to make a pilgrimage to two sites, one on each side of the Jordan River. The sites are the subject of a bitter argument between Israel and Jordan, with each claiming that Jesus was baptized at the site on its side of the river.Archbishop Sabbah has already been criticized by the Jordanian authorities for reportedly suggesting that the true site is on the Israeli side. But at the press conference the patriarch refused to comment further. Another highlight of the Pope's visit will be a speech about reconciliation between Jews and Christians, to be given at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, the Israeli monument to those who perished in the Holocaust.Archbishop Sabbah said he was unable to provide any early insights into whether the papal address would go far enough to satisfy demands for a full apology over the failure of the Catholic Church to take strong action to prevent the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis.Michael McGarry, a Roman Catholic priest who ministers in a church near Bethlehem, said yesterday that Christians carried a great spiritual burden for failing to stop the Holocaust. But he added the Vatican had already gone a long way in addressing the issue."We have said as Roman Catholics, with the leadership of the Pope, that there are things that we have done in our past that provide an atmosphere within which the Holocaust occurred, and we did not put it out, did not stop it," he told Ecumenical News International (ENI). "Not enough of us stepped out from the sidelines to save our Jewish brothers and sisters. There was not enough leadership, maybe even sinful leadership. We did not speak out. There was not enough that we did, and we continue that examination of our conscience."Pope John Paul, a native of Poland who lost boyhood Jewish friends in the Holocaust, has spoken and written more than any other pontiff on the relationship between Catholics and Jews.Rabbi David Rosen, director general of the Israeli office of the Anti-Defamation League, agreed at the press conference on March 14 that Pope John Paul had made a contribution to reconciliation between Catholics and Jews.But the rabbi said that this was a recent development. For nearly 2,000 years, the Catholic Church had taught Christians to have contempt for the Jews. "The Catholic Church taught that the Jewish Temple was destroyed and they [the Jews] were kicked out of their land as part of a cosmic plan, not just because the Romans did not like the rebellious Jews, but because this was God's punishment on the Jews for their failure to recognize the true dispensation," he said."Therefore, Jews were going to wander forever until they recognized their failure or until the final advent, in which they would recognize it one way or another, as proof of the fact of the truth of Christianity."Therefore, the idea of the return of the Jewish people to the land [of Israel], and the establishment of the sovereignty [of Israel], was an anathema from a Christian perspective [until recently]."Rabbi Rosen said the Catholic Church had now virtually reversed course—from a religion that held Jews in contempt to one that had pledged to fight anti-Semitism around the globe. In 1965, the Vatican declared a new theological approach to the Jews and Judaism, promoting dialogue and rejecting discrimination and anti-Semitism.In 1993, the Holy See and Israel normalized diplomatic relations. But this has not always meant a smooth relationship between Israel and the Vatican, as shown by last month's dispute over the Vatican's views on the status of Jerusalem. The Vatican does not recognize Israel's claim that Jerusalem is its undivided and eternal capital.Last year the Vatican severely criticized Israel for allowing the construction of a mosque near a major Christian holy site in Nazareth, the town of Jesus' boyhood.In another sign of friction with the Vatican, hundreds of Rabbis recently signed a petition calling for the Pope to cancel plans to celebrate Mass on a Saturday—the Jewish Sabbath—during his visit here. The Rabbis said such an action would "desecrate" the Sabbath.Copyright © 2000 Ecumenical News International. Used with permission.

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In a news article in Wednesday's USA Today titled " Pope can't ignore politics during visit" Matthew Kalman writes, "Pope John Paul II embarks on a visit to the Holy Land next week that is part pilgrimage, part political high-wire act."See other stories on preparations for the Pope's visit by CNN, Canada's National Post, The New York Daily News, The Miami Herald, EWTN, and Yahoo.Earlier ChristianityToday.com articles on the papal visit include " Nazareth Mosque Dispute Darkens Papal Visit To Israel | Vatican claims Israel is playing Christians and Muslims against each other" (Nov. 30, 1999).