Cardinal says Pope's prayer at Israeli wall was sign of support for Palestinians
May 26, 2014
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An American prelate has confirmed that when Pope Francis stopped outside Bethlehem to pray at the Israeli security wall, he intended the gesture as a sign of support for Palestinians seeking autonomy.
Speaking to the Boston Globe, Cardinal Edwin O’Brien remarked that the Pope—like his predecessors—had explicitly endorsed the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “The wall symbolizes everything that stands in contradiction to that,” he said.
Cardinal O’Brien—the former Archbishop of Baltimore who is the grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre—said that the security wall, which through Palestinian territory, is a “scandal.” He suggested that the Pope might have made his impromptu gesture because he was taken aback by the scale of the wall, which covers a 400-mile-long strip and is 30 feet high. “Once you actually see it,” the cardinal said, “it’s hard not to be shocked.”
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Posted by: Defender -
May. 28, 2014 5:18 PM ET USA
Why is it that the majority of Western prelates conveniently forget the multiple attempts at eradicating Israel by countries and by terrorists groups, such as the PLO? How would they like having a neighbor taking potshots at them every few days? A fence line instead of continued military action is the lesser of options. It would certainly help if the prelates would refrain from commenting on what they know not.
