The Assembly of the Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land filed an official complaint with Israeli police after the leader of a radical Israeli movement offered remarks to the press that seemed to encourage the burning of churches. The Rev. Pietro Felet, the assembly’s secretary general, filed the complaint on Aug. 7 against Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein on behalf of more than 20 patriarchs and bishops. Rabbi Gopstein, who heads the Jewish anti-assimilation extremist movement, Lehava, said in early August that “churches and mosques could be burned,” asserting that “Jewish law advocated destroying the land of idolatry.” The assembly said the rabbi’s comments “incite hatred and pose a real threat to the Christian religious buildings in the country.” The assembly urged Israeli authorities to “ensure real protection for Christian citizens of this country and their places of worship.”
Outrage in Holy Land
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
In a time of increasing disaffiliation from and disillusionment with the institutional church, a new theological perspective on the church is needed—one that places Jesus’ own teaching at the center.
This week on “Jesuitical,” Zac and Ashley are thrilled to speak with their friend and colleague Father James Martin about his new podcast, “The Spiritual Life with Fr. James Martin, S.J.”
Pope Leo XIV renewed his “appeal for peace” in an interview after a surprise visit to the Vatican Radio Center.
There are so many things you can enjoy when you are poor—and some, it seems, that are easier to enjoy when you’re poor because you cannot lean on the crutches and the shortcuts that litter the path of the rich.