Things are moving so fast that the Vatican Press Office has issued a statement about an incident during the inter-faith encounter with Pope Benedict today before the wire services had even reported the meeting, much less the incident! I learned about it when I went to the Vatican Radio site for the text of the Pope's address to the inter-religious encounter.
First the statement from Fr. Lombardi:
Vatican Press Office Statement regarding
unscheduled remarks by Sheikh Tayssir Attamimi
during the Inter-religious Meeting
at the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Centre
Statement of Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, Director of the Press Office of the Holy See:
The intervention of Sheikh Tayssir Attamimi was not scheduled by the organizers of the meeting.
In a meeting dedicated to dialogue this intervention was a direct negation of what a dialogue should be.
We hope that such an incident will not damage the mission of the Pope aiming at promoting peace and also inter-religious dialogue, as he has clearly affirmed in many occasions during this pilgrimage.
We hope also that inter-religious dialogue in the Holy Land will not be compromised by this incident.
Here's the first English-service news item occasioned by the Vatican statement. I left the headline as they have it, because I think the use of the phrase 'Vatican condemns...' is not only factually wwrong but also unnecessarily inflammatory, especially as the object of the supposed condemnation is a Muslim! Fr. Lombardi's statement was carefully crafted to avoid sounding offensive even as it states is points clearly - and yet the media can spoil it all by deliberate distortion.
Vatican condemns Muslim sheik's outburst
at inter-faith meeting in Jerusalem
Jerusalem, May 11 (dpa) - A Vatican spokesman condemned Monday night an outburst by a Muslim religious judge at an interfaith meeting hosted by Pope Benedict XVI in Jerusalem, saying the remarks were "a direct negation of what dialogue should be."
Sheikh Taysir Tamimi, the chief justice of the religious courts in the West Bank and Gaza, who had not been scheduled to speak, commandeered the microphone at the end of the meeting and began to criticise Israel.
Mons. Twal trying to stop Tamimi in vain.
Speaking in Arabic, he called on Christians and Muslims to work against the Jewish state, saying that "we struggle together and we suffer together from the injustice of the Israeli occupation and its oppressive practices, and we look forward to freedom and independence."
"His Holiness the Pope, I call on you in the name of the one God to condemn these crimes and pressure the Israeli government to stop its aggression against the Palestinian people," he said.
Latin Patriach of Jerusalem Fouad Twal attempted without success to get Tamimi to stop speaking. Although some people in the room applauded the remarks, others appeared distinctly uncomfortable.
It was not clear whether Benedict understood what Tamimi was saying.
The meeting, attended by Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious leaders, ended after Tamimi's tirade.
"We hope that such incident will not damage the mission of the Holy Father aiming at promoting peace and inter-religious dialogue as he has clearly affirmed in many occasions in this pilgrimage," Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See press office, said in a statement.
"We hope also that inter-religious dialogue in the Holy Land will not be damaged by this incident," he added.
Benedict XVI arrived in Israel late Monday morning for a five day visit during which he will visit Christian, Jewish and Muslim holy sites and will also visit the Palestinian Authority.
Sheikh attacks Israel,
Pope walks out
By MATTHEW WAGNER
May 11. 2009
In an impromptu speech, delivered in Arabic at the Notre Dame Pontifical Institute in Jerusalem, Sheikh Tayseer Tamimi, chief Islamic judge in the Palestinian Authority, launched a 10-minute tirade against the State of Israel for confiscating Palestinians' land and carrying out war crimes against the residents of Gaza.
He also called for the immediate return of all Palestinian refugees, and called on Christians and Muslims to unite against Israel.
Tamimi invoked the name of Saladin, the Muslim sultan who recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187. Tamimi said that unlike Israel, Saladin upheld the religious freedoms of all faiths.
Following the diatribe and before the meeting was officially over, the Pope exited the premises. However, he shook Tamimi's hand before walking out.
The Pope, speaking before Tamimi, discussed the importance of religion and truth for the advancement of humanity's mutual understanding.
He was visibly uncomfortable with the tone of Tamimi's discourse. Even those who did not understand his Arabic quickly understood that the Muslim cleric was giving a militant speech.
Several attempts were made by Latin Patriarch in the Holy Land Fouad Twal, a Palestinian, to politely stop Tamimi. But Tamimi would not be deterred from reading his written speech, apparently prepared in advance without the knowledge of the organizers.
When Tamimi finished, applause could be heard from a few dozen in an audience of a few hundred.
Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, responded to Tamimi's tirade by e-mail.
"The intervention of Sheikh Tayseer Tamimi was not previewed by the organizers of the inter-religious meeting that took place at Notre Dame Center in Jerusalem.
"In a meeting dedicated for dialogue this intervention was a direct negation of what dialogue should be. We hope that such incident will not damage the mission of the Holy Father aiming at promoting peace and inter-religious dialogue as he has clearly affirmed in many occasions in this pilgrimage.
"We hope also that inter-religious dialogue in the Holy Land will not be damaged by this incident," Lombardi said.
Haifa Chief Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen, the only Jewish representative on the stage with the Pope, attacked Tamimi afterwards for "cynically exploiting the media opportunity to incite and disparage the State of Israel."
Cohen, who is also the co-chairman of a joint Chief Rabbinate-Holy See inter0religious committee, said he would refuse to meet with Tamimi again.
Oded Weiner, director-general of the Chief Rabbinate, called Tamimi's comments "scandalous" and said the Rabbinate was cutting off all ties with him.
"This unplanned speech embarrassed and was disrespectful toward our honored guest, the Pope," Weiner said immediately after the speech.
"While the Pope comes on a mission of peace and brotherhood, Sheikh Tamimi comes with a message of war," Weiner said.
The Foreign Ministry and Tourism Ministry released a joint statement saying it was "very unfortunate" that the sheikh took advantage of the event to "wildly incite against Israel."
The statement said that Israel condemned the comments, and that instead of furthering peace and dialogue, the sheikh chose to "sow division and hatred between Israel and the Palestinians, and Jews, Moslems and Christians."
Tamimi staged an identical verbal attack against Israel during Pope John Paul II's visit in March 2000.
Then, Tamimi called on "the occupier" to stop "strangling Jerusalem and oppressing its residents."
Citing land confiscations, house demolitions, settlements and the Baruch Goldstein massacre in Hebron in 1994, Tamimi said Israel had a long record of "genocide" and "shooting and wounding Palestinian children." [And what does he call the long record of Palestinian suicide bombing massacres of Israelis?]
"The establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Yasser Arafat as its president and Jerusalem as its capital - this will stop the strife between the religions," Tamimi said at the time.
He also refused to shake the hand of then-chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau.
[Surely, someone at the Latin Patriarchate should have been aware of Tamimi's incident with John Paul II and cautioned Mons. Twal - who put together this interfaith meeting - about him. It's possible Twal himself was not aware of it because he was serving in some nunciature abroad at the time.]
Rev. Dr. Trond Bakkevig of the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land, the interfaith body that works with Tamimi, said he was "terribly sorry" about Tamimi's speech. But he hoped that it would not shed a negative light on the entire evening.
"It is important that the whole evening is not just Tamimi's speech," said Bakkevig, who represented the (Lutheran) Church of Norway.
[Dream on! The nature of the media beast - which appears capable of sucking vulnerable people dry of their brains and ability to think for themselves - is such that the negative will always get the headlines and the media attention, while the positive is either ignored altogether or underplayed.]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 12/05/2009 06:23]