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Israel imposing restrictions on visiting priests
November 02, 2009
The government of Israel is restricting visas for Catholic priests, forcing clerics to renew their visas every year and refusing visas to some priests from African and Asian countries. The new restrictions on priests point toward the likelihood of greater tension between the Church and the Israeli government.
In 1993 "fundamental accord" that formed the basis for relations between Israel and the Holy See, the Church has the right to appoint priests to provide for the faithful in the Holy Land. But the terms of the "fundamental accord" have not yet been codified in a legal agreement; negotiations toward a permanent pact have been moving forward slowly for more than a decade. The restrictions on priests' visas are also likely to prompt new demands from the Vatican for a quicker pace of negotiation to complete that juridical agreement.
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