ARAM, 18-19 (2006-2007) 229-305.A. doi: O'MAHONY 10.2143/ARAM.18.0.2020731 229 CHRISTIAN PRESENCE, CHURCH-STATE RELATIONS AND THEOLOGY IN MODERN JERUSALEM: THE HOLY SEE, PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANITY AND THE LATIN PATRIARCHATE OF JERUSALEM IN THE HOLY LAND ANTHONY O’MAHONY (Heythrop College, University of London) Christianity in the Holy land has found its presence significantly challenged from a number of directions, war, interreligious and ethnic conflict, emigra- tion, and a fragmented ecclesiology, for nearly all of the twentieth century and into the first years of the twenty-first century. But Christianityin the Holy Land is not only of local significance, but is of importance to the identity of the two billion strong world community of churches which make up Christen- dom. The Vatican and the Catholic Church has also taken a strong religious and political interest in the past presence and future configuration of Christian- ity in Jerusalem and in the surrounding states. This paper will seek to firstly, to describe the historical presence of Christianity in the Holy land and relations between churches and state in Jerusalem, especially during the Ottoman and British mandate periods; and the development of early Palestinian Christian political and religious thought. Secondly to look at who are the churches that make up the Christian body in the modern Holy Land, and to describe many of the challenges that face them. The third part will look at in detail the origins and development of the policy of the Holy See to the Jerusalem question and towards Christianity in the Holy Land. Significant attention will be given to the theological thought and diplomacy of Pope Paul VI and John Paul II; and the Catholic presence, particularly modern historical and religious nature of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. INTRODUCTION Arguably as a sacred city, Jerusalem is the single most important place in the Middle East: for Muslims, the Haram al-Sharef is a symbol of victory; for Jews the Wailing Wall a symbol of loss; and for Christians, the Holy Sepul- chre a symbol of victory through loss. Religion and politics have interacted in every sacred story. Political theologies remain at least implicit in the histories of all major faith communities and at the centre of every sacred story is at least 06-8819_Aram 18-19_13_O'Mahony 229 06-26-2007, 17:54 230 CHRISTIAN PRESENCE, CHURCH-STATE RELATIONS AND THEOLOGY one sacred place, which in turn carves out of the cosmos a space held to be inviolable and safe for believers, a sanctuary, the place where everything of ultimate significance has occurred. For the Christian community and in par- ticular for the Christians of Jerusalem, the principal holy spaces are the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the Churches and Holy Places in Nazareth, and especially, Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which remains an im- portant symbol of Christian presence and custodianship in Jerusalem. Chris- tians have not always enjoyed the right of freedom to make pilgrimage to and worship in the Holy Sepulchre, however, access to the sanctuary has always remand a symbolic anchor for Christians in Jerusalem. Perhaps no single place speaks more eloquently of the diversity of Christianity in Jerusalem than the Holy Sepulchre, with multiple side chapels, belonging to Greeks, Armenians, Latins, Syrians, Copts, Ethiopians, competing liturgical rites and celebrations and the aroma of many shades of incense upon the air.1 From the end of the Crusader period onwards the Christian communities and churches of Jerusalem and Palestine have experienced a succession of po- litical systems and states with no partiality to Christianity. At the same time, these churches were representatives of ecclesiastical traditions older than those states, indeed in many ways older than the ethnic identities that are now preva- lent in the region.2 This has meant that the involvement of Christians in poli- tics has been a natural endeavour and a constant theme in the religious culture of Jerusalem. An expression of this relationship between religion and politics in its Palestinian monastic setting has been described by John Binns in ‘Ascet- ics and Ambassadors of Christ: The Monasteries of Palestine 314-631’: “The Monks were people who withdrew from the secular world of the city but also were conscious of belonging to it. This double vocation is shown most clearly in the contrast between the two best-known monks, Euthymius, who con- sistently sought the seclusion and silence of the desert, and Sabas, who, although a renowned ascetic, was involved in the life of the Church of Jerusalem to the extent of travelling to the imperial capital on two occasions to represent its in- terests”3 In many ways it is not difficult for the modern pilgrim or traveller to Jerusa- lem, to imagine the naturally cosmopolitan character of what was Christian Palestine during its early centuries, where cultural and religious exchange had been woven into the very fabric of the landscape.4 Christian Jerusalem would 1 These opening thoughts I owe much to John Renard’s, Theological Perspectives on the Mid- dle East, American-Arab Affairs, No. 34 (1990), pp. 56-63. 2 Samuel Rubenson: Church and State, Communion and Community: Some issues in the re- cent ecclesiastical history of Jerusalem, The Middle East Unity and Diversity (eds.): Heikki Palva and Knut S.Vikor (Copenhagen: NIAS 1993), pp. 84-102. 3 John Binns: Ascetics and Ambassadors of Christ: the Monasteries of Palestine, 314-631 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), p. V. 4 For an early Christian understanding of the Holy Land see: Robert Wilken: The Land Called Holy: Palestine in Christian History and Thought (Yale University Press: 1992); idem: 06-8819_Aram 18-19_13_O'Mahony 230 06-26-2007, 17:54 A. O'MAHONY 231 have been dominated by pilgrims and monastic houses bring together people from east and west, south and north, from Africa and Asia, including Ethiopia, Nubia, Egypt and as far away as the western Atlantic coast of Africa; from Arabia, Armenia, Byzantium, Georgia, Central Asia, Persia and India, from all over Europe Ireland, Gaul, Spain, Britain, Scandinavia, Iceland and Russia.5 The Judean desert was populated with monks from all over the Christian world who whilst acting as carriers of their own religious culture, would have known no other identity other than their heavenly civitas or polis. The monks of Pal- estine, numbering approximately, some three thousand, during the Byzantine period inhabited some sixty monastic settlements across the hills and plains of the Judean desert.6 The development of monasticism was made possible by economic prosperity and political stability, which characterized Palestine dur- ing the Byzantine period7 and by the flow of pilgrims, which not only provided financial support, but also provided new members for monastic foundations.8 It is during this time of expansion that the Judean desert, a region delimited by Jerusalem, the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, is fully assimilated into the reli- gious and monastic geography of the Holy Land. A modern expression of this long historical continuity in the complex makeup of Christianity in the Holy Land is that in Jerusalem today there are three Patriarchs: Greek Orthodox, Byzantine Palestine: A Christian Holy Land (in: Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 51 (1988), pp. 214- 237); idem: Christian Pilgrimage to the Holy Land (in: City of the Great King: Jerusalem from David to the Present, (ed.) N. Rosovsky (Harvard University Press 1996), pp. 117-135). For the development of the idea of Christian Holy Places see: R.A. Markus: How on Earth Could Places Become Holy? Origins of the Christian Idea of Holy Places, Journal of Early Christian Studies, Vol. 2 (1994), pp. 257-272) and P.W.L. Walker: Holy City, Holy Places? Christian Attitudes to Jerusalem and the Holy Land in the Fourth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1990). For an in- teresting cartographical expression see: Catherine Delano Smith: Geography or Christianity? Maps of the Holy Land before A.D. 1000, Journal of Theological Studies, n.s. Vol. 42 (1991), pp. 143-152). 5 See the interesting paper by Guy Stroumsa: Religious Contacts in Byzantine Palestine, Numen, Vol. 34 (1989) pp. 16-42) and Pierre Maraval: Lieux Saints et pèlerinages d’Orient: Histoire et geographie des origines á la conquete arabe (Paris: Cerf 1985). 6 Y. Hirschfeld: The Judean Desert Monasteries in the Byzantine Period (Yale University Press 1992) pp. 78-90 and idem: List of the Byzantine Monasteries in the Judean Desert, Chris- tian Archaeology in the Holy land (eds.) G.C. Bottini, L. Di Segni and E. Allata (Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press 1990), pp. 1-90). See also Otto Meinardus: Notes on the laurae and monasteries of the Wilderness of Judea, Liber Annus: Studii biblici Fransciscani Vol. 15 (1964- 65), pp. 220-250; Vol. 16 (1965-66), pp. 328-356; and 19 (1969), pp. 305-327. 7 P.W.L. Walker: Jerusalem and the Holy Land in the 4th century, The Christian Heritage in the Holy Land (eds) Anthony O’Mahony, Göran Gunner and Kevork Hintlian (London: [Melisende] Scorpion 1995), pp. 22-34. 8 See the work by Lorenzo Perrone: Monasticism in the Holy Land: From the beginnings to the Crusaders, Proche-Orient Chrétien, Vol. 45 (1995), pp. 31-63); Christian Holy Places and Pilgrimage in an Age of Dogmatic Conflicts: Popular religion and confessional affliation in Byz- antine Palestine (fifth to seventh centuries), POC, Vol. 48 (1998), pp. 5-37 and Aspects of Pales- tinian monasticism in Byzantine times: some comments and proposals, Patterns of the Past, Prospects for the Future: The Christian Heritage in the Holy land (eds.) Thomas Hummel, Kevork Hintlian and Ulf Carmesund (London: Melisende, 1999), pp.