Much of interest, including a report on the recent Sant’Egidio ecumenical gathering in Lyons, musings on the limits and purpose of ecumencial dialogue, a conversation with Archbishop Rowan Williams, and then a fuller story on the Pope’s now delayed trip to Turkey, and an interview with the Patriarch of the Armenian Orthodox Church which is the largest Orthodox body in Turkey (there are only 2000 Greek Orthodox, and about 100,000 Armenian). Plus a visit to Taize.
And on the meeting of the two chief rabbis of Israel with the Pope yesterday:
Rabbi Yona Metzger, the Chief Rabbi representing the Ashkenazi community, and Shlomo Moshe Amar, Chief Rabbi of the Sephardic community, met with the pope in a 45-minute audience at Castel Gandolfo.
The rabbis then met with a group of reporters at Rome’s Ciampino airport prior to returning to Israel.
"We asked the pope to talk about [the destruction of synagogues], to deplore it, to use his influence," Metzger said. "If there is also a way the church could use its diplomatic channels, we would appreciate it."
Some have speculated that the synagogues were left behind intentionally to provoke a violent Palestinian response, in order to score a public relations coup, but Metzger and Amar rejected those suggestions.
"Terrorism is a cancer," Metzger said. "Today it is the synagogues in Gaza, but tomorrow it could be mosques or churches."
Amar said he believed that "any such attempt against the holy sites of any religion" should be rejected.
Amar told reporters that in the car on the way to the papal audience, he and Metzger got a phone call from Israeli military forces asking what to do about two other synagogues in another vacated settlement area, this one not located in the Gaza Strip. After what Amar described as "long deliberations," which included a call to another rabbi in Israel, they decided that one synagogue could be dismantled after valuables had been removed, the other should be buried under sand so that it would not be burned down.
"Our hearts are bleeding over this," Amar said. "It’s the most difficult decision we have ever had to make."
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