STATEMENT – On Sunday January 17, 2016, the Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion was the target of a yet new act of vandalism. Anti-Christian slogans like “Let his (Jesus’) name and memory be obliterated” were sprayed on the doors and walls of the Benedictine monastery.
Three weeks after the vandalism against the Salesian convent in Beit Gemal, another act has occurred against the Mount Zion Abbey in Jerusalem, a significant place for interreligious dialogue between Judaism and Christianity.
Some of the slogans that were written on the doors and walls of the monastery included: “Death to the heathen Christians, the enemies of Israel”, “Let his (Jesus’) name and memory be obliterated” and “Christians to Hell”.
The Latin Patriarchate very strongly condemns this aggression and reiterates that the unique remedy for such behaviour is to control the kind of education given in the schools where these young people are educated, and to follow up those who incite intolerance against Christians.
It is regrettable that such episodes of hatred come 50 years after “Nostra Aetate” which initiated the interreligious dialogue of the Catholic Church with other religions, and turned a new page between Catholic Church and Judaism.
We hope that the perpetrators will be arrested before proposed threats are carried out.
Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem
