ISRAEL: MOSLEMS AND CHRISTIANS IN NAZARETH MAKE FINAL PREPARATIONS FOR PAPAL VISIT

Record ID: 399110

  • Title: ISRAEL: MOSLEMS AND CHRISTIANS IN NAZARETH MAKE FINAL PREPARATIONS FOR PAPAL VISIT
  • Date: 24th March 2000
  • Summary: NAZARETH, ISRAEL (MARCH 24, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. PULL OUT: BELLS OF THE BASILICA OF THE ANNUNCIATION RINGING 0.18 2. SV: MOSLEMS DURING PRAYER LISTENING TO CHURCH BELLS 0.22 3. SCU/SV: IMAM STANDING IN SILENCE/ MOSLEMS DURING PRAYER LISTENING TO CHURCH BELLS (2 SHOTS) 0.36 4. MV: FLAGS OF THE MOSLEM MOVEMENT 0.40 5. S
  • Embargoed: 8th April 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NAZARETH, ISRAEL
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVAAPTVLHQWK615RPAUEK09YORUM
  • Story Text: Moslems and Christians living together in Nazareth are
    making final preparations for the visit of the Pope.The town
    has been the focus of inter-religious tension between the two
    groups because of a planned mosque in the basilica square.

    Church bells interrupted Moslem prayers in Nazareth on
    Friday (March 24), symbolic reminders of religious disharmony
    in the town of Jesus's youth, where Pope John Paul will say
    Mass on Saturday.

    Sheikh Nazim, Imam of the controversial proposed mosque,
    had just begun his Friday prayers sermon with a "Praise be to
    God" when the bells tolled in the nearby Basilica of the
    Annunciation.

    He immediately stopped his sermon and around 200 Moslem
    worshippers sat in silence until the ringing, for the Feast of
    the Annunciation, stopped from the church, where tradition
    says an angel told the Virgin Mary she would bear the son of
    God.

    But the next thing the Moslem cleric said were rare words of
    brotherhood in the town where the prince of peace grew up.

    "We welcome (the Pope) to Nazareth.We are ready to
    receive him," said Nazim, resuming his sermon."Tomorrow we
    must keep everything calm because there will be alot of
    tourists coming to Nazareth and we will convey to them an idea
    of Islam."
    The skyline above the town is dominated by the striking
    cupola of the Basilica of the Annunciation, built on the ruins
    of a Crusader church destroyed by 13th century Moslem armies.

    When Pope John Paul delivers Mass there, other reminders
    of conflict between Moslems and Christians will be hard to
    miss.

    For the past two years, Moslems in the town of 60,000 have
    staked a claim to a public square just metres from the
    basilica, which encloses the rough stone cave that Christians
    believe was the home of Mary.

    Israel's decision last year to allow a mosque to be built
    on the plaza angered the Vatican and stoked tensions between
    the Moslem majority and Christians in Israel's largest Arab
    city.

    Now, both Christians and Moslems hope the Pope's visit
    will help the process of reconciliation.

    "Nazareth has a special meaning in the hearts of the
    faithful and we had many hard times in the last two years,"
    said Bishop Giacinto Boulos Marcuzzo of the Latin
    Patriarchate."The presence of the Pope will help us to be
    brothers in Nazareth."
    John Paul is only the second Pope to visit the Holy Land,
    sacred to Islam, Judaism and Christianity.Nazareth's
    mainstreet is named after the first, Pope Paul VI, who came in
    1964.

    Last year the government forced the town's Moslems to take
    down a tent they erected to stake a claim to the plot near the
    basilica.

    Moslems revere the site as the tomb of Shihab al-Din,
    nephew of the Moslem hero Saladin who ousted the Crusaders
    from the Holy Land eight centuries ago.


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