Church leaders in Israel are opposed to any politicization of the Church of the
Nativity in Bethlehem and other places of worship, and expressed hope that the
traditional guardians of the site would preserve their jurisdiction of
it.
Following a UNESCO decision last week to list the basilica as a World
Heritage Site under “Palestine,” Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the appointed
custodian of the Holy Land – responsible for oversight and upkeep of Christian
holy sites in the Middle East – said that the Church of the Nativity must remain
first and foremost a place of worship.
“The custodian of the Holy Land
reiterates the position of the churches: This holy place cannot, and should not,
be instrumentalized for any use that is alien to its character,” Pizzaballa said
in a statement to the press.
“Our hope in the churches...is that
the holy sites will be considered first and foremost as holy places of worship,
and that cultural and political issues, whether local or international, are
excluded from their management, daily life and dynamics,” Pizzaballa added,
saying that the must remain “places of peace and serenity for all the pilgrims
and should not become places of difficult coexistence.”
At the end of
April, Pizzaballa, along with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem
Theophilus III, and Patriarch of the Armenian Church Archbishop Torkom Manoogian
sent a letter to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas expressing their
opposition to the Church of the Nativity’s candidacy for World Heritage
status.
“In our opinion, we do not think it opportune to deal with this
request that the basilica and its entire complex be included in the list of
World Heritage sites,” the three clerics wrote, “due to different
considerations, the minor of which his that the operating conditions required by
the statues of UNESCO, necessary to include it, do not exist.”
The
Franciscan order of the Catholic church which Pizzaballa heads, along with the
Armenian and Greek Orthodox Patriarchates of Jerusalem, jointly administer the
site.
In his comments on UNESCO’s decision, Pizzaballa said that he was
under the impression, before the decision was announced, that the vote taken in
St. Petersburg on Friday pertained only to the Old City of Bethlehem and not to
the basilica itself.
In their April letter, the church leaders noted that
they did not oppose the listing of the Old City of Bethlehem as a UNESCO
site.
Archbishop Aris Shirvanian of the Armenian Patriarchate of
Jerusalem told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that the unanimous position of the
three churches is that they must keep their jurisdiction of the basilica intact,
and that neither UNESCO nor other organizations or churches should be given any
administrative rights.
He would not comment on concerns about the
politicization of the site, but did say that “since the church is in Bethlehem
there are no objections to it being listed in Palestine.”
However, Bishop
William Shomali of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said that the work done
by the Palestinian Authority to have the Church of the Nativity listed as a
UNESCO World Heritage site was a significant achievement, and added that the PA
has provided written guarantees that it will not intervene in the internal
affairs of the site, in particular the “status quo” agreement which defines the
relations amongst the various denominations administering the Church.
In
Pizzaballa’s comments, he also noted that Abbas had guaranteed the full autonomy
of the three churches in the management of the sites.