Monday, December 21, 2009

Tell it to the Vatican: Christianity is not land or shrine bound


Jewish Israel
15 December 09

When it comes to Vatican negotiations and property issues, Jewish Israel sort of feels like we’ve been there and done that here, here, here, here... wait, simply go to the search facility in the upper right -hand corner of this screen and search for “Vatican”. This writer has been addressing the issue of the Vatican’s designs on Mt. Zion since October 2005 when I penned “Vatican’t “, and it just won’t go away.

Mention Vatican property and tax issues in Israel and the subject of the Cenacle Shrine (Last Supper Room or Coenaculum) on Mt. Zion inevitably comes up, as evidenced by recent local and international headlines here, here,here, here and here.

So it was a little disconcerting to know that Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, that great champion of interfaith cooperation and Christian rights in the Holy Land, was handling negotiations for Israel. Although, he clearly declared his intentions to “assert Israel's right to all parts of the King David's Tomb compound if the issue is raised during upcoming meetings at the Vatican.”

Well, according to YNET, it seems Daniel kept to his word, as their headlines on December 10th announced “Israel's talks with Vatican fail” . The report cited that “the failure mostly stems from disagreement in respect to the Vatican's demand for sovereignty at the Last Supper Room on Jerusalem's Mount Zion.” (hat tip to JI member Toby).

Meanwhile a December 11th joint Israel-Holy See statement described the most recent round of talks between the two sides as being held in “an atmosphere of cordiality and mutual understanding”, with talks resuming on January 7th. (hat tip to JI member Yisrael).

How important is the Upper Room shrine to Christianity?

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