“Peace between peoples is not just established between the clauses of international accords. It is built on the basis of justice and given roots by vanquishing selfishness, intolerance and violence”. So writes Father Stanislas Lalanne, secretary general of the Conference of French bishops in the editorial that opens the most recent number of SNOP, the news bulletin of the French Episcopal Conference which has devoted a long feature to the Holy Land in its December issue. “The people who live in this land says don Eric Morin, student at the biblical school of Jerusalem have extraordinary courage”. “ In every moment, anything may happen, reducing to nothing all the efforts they have made up to that moment to live a little bit more decently. A terrorist attack, or a reprisal raid, may irrupt into the lives of the inhabitants at any moment. This fear places a burden on everyday life to the point of stifling it and rendering it unbreathable”. In such a context, Christmas assumes a particular significance this year. “It will be a sign writes don Morin that God never abandons man” and “this faith transforms the courage of one day into a courage for peace”.
