Card Filoni: Both Israel and Palestine have the right to live
At the press conference of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, its Grand Master, Card Fernando Filoni, said that the role of Christians is to act as a bridge in the conflict. The Order is helping the Latin Patriarchate through a flow of donations. Looking to the future, “We will have to rebuild,” said the Order’s ambassador, Leonardo Visconti di Modrone.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – This morning, a press conference was held at the Holy See Press Office to present the 2023 Consulta of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (EOHSJ), set to take place in Rome from 6 to 11 November).
“No one can think that Israel doesn't have the right to live, to be, to exist. Just as it is unthinkable that the Palestinian people do not have the right to exist, to live. The two have rights and neither is superior to the other,” said Card Fernando Filoni, Grand Master of the Order at the press conference.
In the region currently affected by the war between Israel and Hamas, “the “richness and multiplicity of ethnic groups and cultures, which converge around the same faith, in the one God," are fundamental, he added.
Although a minority in the Holy Land after Jews and Muslims, Christians can play the important role of “bridge between different groups, so that we include them in our community", despite the ongoing conflicts. For this reason, the Church does not take sides.
"When we simply defend our right, we forget the right of others." Only by overcoming divisions can we extricate ourselves from the current situation in which we “catastrophically and tragically” live, Filoni said.
At present, the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem is in daily contact, through the Latin Patriarchate, with the Church of the Holy Family, located east of Gaza City.
"We know that about 500 seniors and children have found refuge in this parish building, people trying to flee the bombs," said Ambassador Leonardo Visconti di Modrone, Governor General of the EOHSJ, who also spoke at the press conference.
"The situation in the Holy Land cannot but have an impact on the spirit of this Consulta," Visconti said. He noted that the Order is currently providing "voluntary donations in addition to the regular ones to alleviate and relieve the difficulties of the population”."
This entails helping the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which "is on the ground, knows the most pressing priorities and needs." Donations continue to flow in from all over the world; some 40 countries are represented in the EOHSJ.
"The Latin Patriarchate's request for help concerns above all the future,” the Governor General explained. “We will have to rebuild; we will have to start all over again."
The most pressing need right now is to reach Gaza, the places where people Christians and non-Christians, are sheltering, to bring “medicines, food, water, even diesel for generators." It will be up to the Latin Patriarchate to decide which projects will go first.
The Consulta, an event that takes place every four years, is the time when the Order’s top officials meet "to discuss and reflect on shared topics that touch the life of the Order in all its local structures.”
The 2023 Consulta will bring something new; for the first time, in fact, some 30 priors will participate as observers. This is meant to boost "cooperation between the secular and ecclesiastical elements," Visconti said.
Next Monday, 6 November, Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa will speak via live feed at the meeting.
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13/05/2022 14:05
