VATICAN (CWNews.com) - Pope John Paul II, ending his vacation on Sunday, called for the creation of a special international status for Jerusalem to solve the impasse in the Camp David peace accords over competing Israeli and Palestinian claims to the city.
The Holy Father said he was praying for a successful outcome to the talks going on outside Washington, DC, urging the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority "not to overlook the importance of the spiritual dimension of the city of Jerusalem." He said world oversight of the location of holy places sacred to three major religions, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, was the best solution.
"The Holy See continues to maintain that only a special statute, internationally guaranteed, can effectively preserve the most sacred areas of the Holy City," he said. It would "assure freedom of religion and of worship for all the faithful who, in the region and the entire world, look to Jerusalem as a crossroads of peace and of coexistence," the Pope added.
Israel dismissed the proposal, while a Palestinian spokesman welcomed the proposal. "It's not on the table," said Aviv Shiron, spokesman for Israel's Foreign Minister David Levy. "The reality has shown that since Israel has controlled the holy sites, freedom of access and worship has never been greater," Shiron said in Israel.
"This is a sign from the Pope, who is the highest Christian authority in this world, that he is denying the claim of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem," said Hassan Abdel Rahman, Palestinian envoy to Washington and a frequent spokesman for the Palestinians during the Camp David talks.
The Holy Father had ended his vacation in northern Italy's Alps on Saturday and headed for the papal summer residence at Castelgandolfo outside Rome. The Pope, staying in a newly built house that is part of a summer camp owned by the Salesian order, spent his vacation reading, discussing philosophy and theology with a close friend from his native Poland, and taking walks in the mountains with aides.
Catholic World News Service - Daily News Briefs