Exclusive: A Seat for the Pope at King David's Tomb
February 23, 2013
Giulio Meotti
The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary. He is at work on a book about the Vatican and Israel.
An historic agreement has been drafted between Israel and the
Vatican. The Israeli authorities have granted the Pope an official seat
in the room where the Last Supper is believed to have taken place, on
Mount Zion in Jerusalem, and where David and Solomon, Jewish kings of
Judea, are considered by some researchers, to also be buried.
It is the culmination of a long campaign by the Catholic Church to regain religious stewardship over the place where Jesus is supposed to have broken bread and drunk wine with his disciples on the eve of his crucifixion.
This is an enormous issue pushed through without any public debate.
According to
our sources, the agreement, which is expected to be ratified next June,
gives the Pope a “special authority” over the second floor of the
building, so that Christian pilgrims will be able to celebrate religious
functions like Pope John Paul did in 2000.
The agreement constitutes Israel’s capitulation to the Vatican’s efforts to “Christianize” the holy site, like when a Catholic convent was built in Auschwitz.
The Catholic Church has long wanted control over
part of the area on Mt. Zion so as to turn it into an international
religious center for Catholics. The blueprint of the agreement reads as
follows: “The Vatican hands over this use of the Cenacle to the Custody
of the Holy Land which will keep the Cenacle open from 6 AM to 8 AM for
the celebration of the Holy Mass”.
In the long term, the
gesture will increase tensions between Jews and the large assets of the
Vatican. The Church has long been working to reduce Jewish rights in
Jerusalem and in the Old City. Now, after the
Muslim Waqf authority expelled the Christians from the Temple Mount and
turned it into a mosque, it’s the turn of the Vatican to lay its hands
on the Jewish Jerusalem.
The Custody of the Holy Land,
the Franciscan order who, with Vatican approval, is in charge of the
holy sites, campaigns with the Arabs against Israel.
As far back as May 2000, Yasser Arafat met Islamic and Christian clergymen at the presidential offices in Ramallah to back Palestinian Arab sovereignty over Jerusalem. Among the clergymen who attended the meeting, Diodoros I, patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church, Torkom II, patriarch of the Armenian Orthodox Church, Catholic Patriarch Michel Sabbah and officials from the Custody of the Holy Land.
"An official meeting took
place in Ramallah, Palestine, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the
State of Palestine". This is the official note of the Vatican press
office about the meeting between the Catholic officials and the PLO
representatives which took place this week.
The Vatican is
also asking that Israel hand over to the Vatican’s control dozens of
sites, 19 in Judea and Samaria and 28 in Jerusalem. The Catholic Church
want to discuss some properties on Mount of Olives, Har Hazeitim, which
is the very history of the Jewish people. If you want to keep Jerusalem
united, you have to keep Har Hazeitim. The Vatican knows that.
In 1989 charges were made by the Catholic authorities that............ Read the rest here
