Yasser Arafat Visits Pope in Gratitude for Decisive Gesture
VATICAN CITY, FEB 15 (ZENIT).- Today marked a historic occasion in the Vatican: the Holy See and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed a Basic Agreement, which stabilizes mutual relations between these two institutions, thus guaranteeing religious liberty in territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
To mark the importance of the occasion, Yasser Araft came to Rome to visit the Holy Father and express his satisfaction with the Agreement. "May God bless the Palestinian people," John Paul II said, when bidding farewell to the Palestinian leader, at the end of a 15-minute meeting. Arafat invited the Pope to visit Jericho, which is in Palestinian territory, during his forthcoming trip to the Holy Land. Although this was not an item on the agenda, the Holy Father agreed.
The Basic Agreement between the Vatican and the Palestinian representatives is the conclusion of 2 years of work of the bilateral Commission established for this purpose in 1998, in line with the analogous Fundamental Agreement that the Vatican signed in 1993 with the State of Israel. Among the issues addressed is the question of the status of Jerusalem. In the Preamble, both parties agree on the need to establish a "special, internationally guaranteed, statute for Jerusalem."
According to the Agreement, said statute would safeguard the freedom of worship in Holy Places, their cultural heritage, and their very dignity in the law of the three religions. The 12 subsequent articles establish in detail the "common commitment" to guarantee the safeguarding of the activities of Catholic structures in the territories under the Palestinian Authority.
In order to explain more fully the importance of this "historic" Agreement, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, Vatican spokesman, said to Vatican Radio that the resolution "contemplates in a broader framework a series of realities, especially related to the Church's presence in Territories of the Palestinian Authority: this is the fundamental issue." In regard to religious liberty, the Vatican spokesman clarified that the document guarantees "the possibility for the Church to carry out its function in all the fields proper to it."
He added, "There are no precedents in a similar bilateral agreement, although he recalled, by way of analogy, the agreement made sometime ago between the Vatican and the State of Israel."
The Basic Agreement completes, so to speak, the normalization of relations between the Vatican and the Middle East. Navarro-Valls explained in this connection that it is a step that "must contribute to the peace process in that area."
Jerusalem remains a thorny issue - both Palestinians as well as Israelis want the city to be their capital. The Vatican spokesman said that the text only refers to "international resolutions" on this topic. "This is not an arbitrary or unilateral point of view; it is a point of view based on resolutions of the international community. This is what gives the document fundamental value."
After leaving the meeting, Arafat said with great satisfaction: "His Holiness promised me that he would come to visit Jericho."
This was the ninth visit of the Nobel Peace Prize winner to the Vatican since 1982. On this occasion, as customary, there was a symbolic exchange of gifts. The Bishop of Rome gave his guest a book on Michelangelo, and the Palestinian leader gave the Pope a bas-relief of the Nativity, Last Supper and star of Bethlehem. After appreciating this modern art gift, the Pope reminded Arafat that the shepherds, who visited the cave in Bethlehem 2000 years ago, were Palestinians.
Zenit - The World Seen From Rome