Jerusalem  (AsiaNews) – There has never been a crisis of the sort in the 56 years of Israel's existence as Church clergy and personnel are deprived of visas to remain in the country.

The crisis affects the lives and work of hundreds of priests, nuns and other religious who now must all live under clandestine conditions. They are subject to being stopped and questioned along the road and even arrested like illegal immigrants. Only last week, March 17, two Most Holy Rosary sisters were stopped by police and two days before that a Franciscan brother was also halted in his steps by security patrols.    

The point is that these persons have been residing in Israel or the Occupied Territories for years. Yet requests to renew their visas or receive one for the first time now gather dust in Interior Ministry offices. 

The visa issue is also a humanitarian problem. Some religious urgently need to leave Israel to be near their dying parents. Yet they can't leave the country since they run the risk of not being able to renter Israel on their return. 

The policy to not remit visas to Church clergy and its staff began during the previous government when Ministry of the Interior was headed by a Shas party fundamentalist. Then one year ago when a Shinui liberal secular party exponent took over the position it was hoped that things would change. However, the new interior minister and other government advocates have gone back on their promises to Church officials.    

The visa stalemate also raises questions over the Fundamental Agreement the Holy See struck with Israel, an international accord now in its tenth year. The agreement recognizes the lawful right of the Church to bring in its own workers and carry out activities within its Holy Land institutions.  

According to the estimates of some religious officials there are at least 100 "illegals", while the number is ever increasing as visas expire every day and are not renewed. The cases especially concern those who entered the country legally but simply need to renew their legal right to stay. The situation involves not only Church personnel in Israel, but in the Occupied Territories as well since to enter areas under Palestinian control they must first pass through Israel .   

In the past, bureaucratic procedures were smooth and transparent: priests assigned to serve the Church in the Holy Land had their visas automatically renewed every 2-3 years. 

Yet Israeli authorities have kept completely silent, a reaction some define as a "rubber wall". At first Church officials supposed delays were due to simple bureaucratic errors and slowdowns. Yet now the phenomenon is too widespread, lasted too long and has affected too many people to be understood as such. Now the Church in the Holy Land risks not having enough religious to make sanctuaries, parishes, hospital and schools function well. And all this is happening in pure silence while the Israeli government utters not one single opinion or explanation and without any proclamation of new rules and requirements.  

Church leaders, bishops from the Holy Land and from abroad, have all turned to Israeli authorities for help, but have received only vague promises or answers. At the beginning of 2003 government authorities promised to discuss new procedures, but still nothing has come about.  

Fr. David Jaeger, a Franciscan father and Holy Land Custodian spokesman, told AsiaNews: "The situation here is really amazing –Kafkesque, to say the least. We are dealing with a very serious problem indeed, one which is getting worse by the day. Promises made by top ranking government officials have not been kept so far. They won't let us know their reasons behind the new policy. There are no official channels of dialog to bring about a resolution to the situation. For some time now the Catholic Church in the Holy Land has been appealing to the solidarity of other Churches worldwide. The country's rulers must realize that the situation now involves the entire Catholic Church across the globe."