The appeals of the European bishops” “

Deep concern has been aroused in the European Churches by the escalation of violence between Israelis and Palestinians in recent days. In some French and Belgian cities the stepping up of Israeli military operations has provoked repercussions with anti-semitic attacks on synagogues and symbolic places of the Jewish communities. Germany. The archbishop of Munich, Friedrich Wetter, has pointed that in the Holy Land “people are experiencing the fact that power is blind to other people’s rights and aspirations and that abuse brings death and destruction”. In the view of the Bavarian bishop Johannes Friedrich, Ariel Sharon “seems to have no other thought than that of demoralizing the Palestinians” and no other objective than that of forcing as many of them as possible to go into exile, believing “he can achieve his own objective with violence”; but Bishop Friedrich expresses equal condemnation for the suicide attacks and concludes that the situation will not change so long as “the instigators and apostles of violence have the upper hand on both sides”. A message of peace has also been issued by Cardinal Karl Lehmann, president of the German Bishops’ Conference, according to whom “concern for peace must begin immediately”, because “first alienation, then gradual aversion and finally hatred are born in the heart of man”. An appeal to Christians, to act as a model, has also been made by Cardinal Joachim Meisner, archbishop of Cologne. France. Archbishop Jean Pierre Ricard of Bordeaux, on behalf of the French bishops, has condemned the serious attacks on some French synagogues. “In these last days – writes the president of the French Bishops’ Conference – attacks have been perpetrated against various synagogues in France, at Lyons, Marseilles and Strasbourg. The Jewish communities have been wounded at the heart of their most cherished places of worship. Violating a community, whatever it be, in its religious feelings and in its faith is a particularly grave act that delivers a frontal blow against our democratic life. In condemning these attacks in the most resolute manner. the Catholic Church in France expresses her deep sympathy to and solidarity with the Jewish communities”. Of the same view in the Council of the Christian Churches of France: it has issued a communiqué expressing its condemnation of attacks against Jewish places of worship and urging that “the various political leaders, including those of France, mobilize in the search for peace”. A similar appeal has been made by the Council of the Christian Churches in Strasbourg. England. Condemnation of the Israeli and Palestinian violence has been expressed by the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, according to whom it is indispensable for “the leaders of the two communities to renounce trying to achieve their objectives by the use of force” and for “the international community to redouble its efforts to guarantee a free State to the Palestinians and security to Israel”. The appeal of the episcopate of England and Wales endorses Resolution 1402 of the United Nations calling on the two sides in the conflict for “an immediate cease-fire and for an Israeli withdrawal from the Territories”. The bishops’ communiqué ends with an invitation to prayer for all the victims of the violence. Italy. A pilgrimage to the Holy Land “to promote the path of co-existence and reciprocal acceptance”: this is the main aim of the youth delegation that left for the Holy Land on 22 March, led by Msgr. Giuseppe Andreozzi, director of the Office of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) for missionary cooperation between the Churches. The young pilgrims had a meeting with the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and with representatives of the Israeli government to whom they made an appeal for peace. The journey was also an occasion to express solidarity with the Christian minority in the Holy Places. “It is indispensable – said Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the Italian bishops, on opening the work of the CEI’s permanent Council on 11 March – that all countries able to influence both sides in the conflict exert the strongest and most determined pressure to bring them back to the negotiating table”.