{"id":27624,"date":"2018-03-06T08:40:36","date_gmt":"2018-03-06T08:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=27624"},"modified":"2018-03-06T08:40:36","modified_gmt":"2018-03-06T08:40:36","slug":"jerusalem-church-authorities-closed-holy-sepulchre-church-protest-maria-lozano-acn-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/03\/06\/jerusalem-church-authorities-closed-holy-sepulchre-church-protest-maria-lozano-acn-international\/","title":{"rendered":"JERUSALEM: Why church authorities closed the Holy Sepulchre church in protest Maria Lozano &#8211; ACN International"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2 class=\"null\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>JERUSALEM<br \/>\nWhy church authorities closed the Holy Sepulchre church in protest<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Last Wednesday the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem reopened its doors. Last Sunday the Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Church representatives had jointly decided to close this sacred building indefinitely, in protest against two controversial Israeli actions. In the interview below, Maria Lozano of the international Catholic pastoral charity <strong>Aid to the Church in Need (ACN)<\/strong> spoke about the background to the controversy with Andrea Krogmann, the correspondent of the German Catholic News Agency KNA, who has been reporting for years on the situation in the Holy Land. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>What can you tell us about the decision to close the Church of the Holy Sepulchre? Was this church ever closed for political reasons before? <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This is not the first time the church has been closed in this way. At least once before there was a closure, and on that occasion, it was in connection with the intifada, in solidarity with the Muslims \u2013 at least, according to the custodians of the keys, who are traditionally Muslims, and certain individual Church representatives. However, it is a most unusual step and also a relatively drastic one.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>The protest by the Church leaders was addressed against what was described as a \u201csystematic campaign\u201c against the Christian communities in the Holy Land and a \u201cblatant breach of the existing status quo\u201c. How are we to understand this? What exactly is behind it?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">According to the traditional status quo dating back to Ottoman times, the Churches are exempt from taxes. Now Israel has for a long time been attempting to change this. At the back of it is the question as to why the commercial enterprises of the Churches should also be excluded from property taxes. So it is not about the churches and places of worship themselves, but about the Church-run facilities such as guesthouses and schools, which Israel is striving to make subject to a property tax. The Churches are resisting these attempts and pointing to the centuries-old traditional status quo agreements. Moreover, the Catholic Church is reminding people about the decades-long, ongoing negotiations between Israel and the Vatican that are aimed among other things at clarifying these very questions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>So why has the whole business suddenly escalated in this way?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Because the Jerusalem city authorities have recently taken concrete steps to enforce these taxes on the Churches, including freezing Church bank accounts among other things.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>This is one aspect of the background to the protests by the Churches. However, the other background is the proposed legislation that is currently under discussion in Parliament. What is this about?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The proposed law is intended to allow the state of Israel to confiscate land sold by the Churches to private investors, and indeed with retroactive effect. The background to this is the fact that in some particular suburbs of Jerusalem a great many apartment blocks have been built on land leased or sold by the Church \u2013 more specifically, by the Greek Orthodox Church. There are people living on this land who, as a result of the sales, now find themselves in an insecure situation. According to its initiators, the proposed law is aimed at protecting these people. However, the Church sees it as a form of discrimination \u2013 for if land sold by the Church can later be confiscated, then no one will wish to purchase such land in the <\/span>future <span style=\"color: #000000;\">since the risk is too great.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>How is this going to be resolved? The latest news indicates that there has been some degree of rapprochement between the two sides\u2026 <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Franciscan Father Francesco Patton of the Custody of the Holy See has said in an interview with the French newspaper \u201eLe Figaro\u201c that the Churches are looking for a signal from the authorities. Yesterday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed with the Mayor of Jerusalem to establish a working party on the Israeli side to work out a compromise and negotiate with the Churches. As part of this agreement between Netanyahu and Jerusalem\u2018s Mayor Nir Barkat, it has been decided that for now the city will renounce any further tax demands, or in other words suspend its current measures and that for the time being no further legislation will be considered in regard to Church property.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Churches have immediately responded to this and Wednesday morning the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was once again reopened. This is the current state of affairs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>We are now approaching Holy Week and the feast of Easter. What is the general mood among the pilgrims and others visiting the Holy Places? <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Many groups of pilgrims are already travelling, regardless of the closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the controversy surrounding it. Statistics from last year and also from the first few months of this year indicate that the number of people visiting the country is increasing. The atmosphere is pretty relaxed. Pilgrims continue to arrive and in considerable numbers. The guest houses are pretty much fully booked, though there are some surprising exceptions. For example, the \u201cNotre Dame\u201c hostel \u2013 a very famous pilgrim hostel in the centre of the Old City \u2013 is still not fully booked for Easter week. But generally speaking, the atmosphere is good and things are busy in the city.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Maria Lozano \u2013 ACN International<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JERUSALEM Why church authorities closed the Holy Sepulchre church in protest Last Wednesday the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem reopened its doors. Last Sunday the Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Church representatives had jointly decided to close this sacred building indefinitely, in protest against two controversial Israeli actions. In the interview below, Maria&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27626,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>JERUSALEM: Why church authorities closed the Holy Sepulchre church in protest Maria Lozano - ACN International - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/03\/06\/jerusalem-church-authorities-closed-holy-sepulchre-church-protest-maria-lozano-acn-international\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"JERUSALEM: Why church authorities closed the Holy Sepulchre church in protest Maria Lozano - ACN International - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"JERUSALEM Why church authorities closed the Holy Sepulchre church in protest Last Wednesday the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem reopened its doors. 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