Church leaders in Jerusalem Call for Enhanced Security During Holy Week

Vatican, 04 April, 2023 / 7:45 PM

Christian leaders of Jerusalem on March 31 issued a joint statement calling on governing authorities to enhance security at holy sites as Easter approaches.

“As we have all seen in recent months, escalating violence has engulfed the Holy Land. Local Christians in particular have increasingly suffered adversities similar to the ones about which St. Peter wrote,” the patriarchs and heads of local Christians in Jerusalem said in their March 31 statement, which cited the First Letter of Peter.

Some churches, funeral processions, and public gathering venues have become “targets of attack,” lamented the group of Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant leaders.

“Some of our holy sites and cemeteries have been desecrated, and some of our ancient liturgies, such as the Palm Sunday procession and the holy fire ceremony, have been closed off to thousands of worshipers,” they added. “This is in spite of our agreements to cooperate with the governing authorities and to accommodate any reasonable requests that they might present.”

Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all consider Jerusalem a holy city, and all three religions have major religious observances in the coming weeks. Many will crowd Jerusalem’s Old City during this time.

Easter falls on April 9 for Christians who follow the Gregorian calendar, while many Orthodox Christians will celebrate Easter the following Sunday. For Jews, Passover observances will last from sunset on April 5 through April 13. Muslims began their observance of the holy month of Ramadan on March 22.

The Christian leaders issued two different statements at the end of January and the end of February lamenting the “increasing cycle of violence in the Holy Land.”

February witnessed retaliatory shootings and violent clashes between Israelis and Palestinians in Nablus and the nearby town of Huwara. This conflict followed Israeli leaders’ agreement to halt the expansion of settlements into Palestinian areas.

The Custody of the Holy Land, a Franciscan-headed Catholic body tasked with the protection of Holy Land sites, also reported several recent attacks on Christians. On Feb. 2, a Jewish radical tore down the statue of Jesus and vandalized the statue’s face at the Church of the Flagellation, the first stop on the Via Dolorosa in the Old City of Jerusalem. In January, a Christian cemetery in Jerusalem was vandalized and in the Armenian Quarter the phrase “death to Christians” was written on a monastery’s walls and a venue used for Maronite Catholic worship.

Other incidents include an attack by religious Jews on tourists at the New Gate near the Custody of the Holy Land headquarters. The attackers committed vandalism and threw chairs, tables, and glasses.