This Christmastide issue of the Catholic Herald is a reminder that, for Christians, the festive season is still festive. Secular society may regard New Year’s Day as the start of a regime of fast and abstinence – or diet and exercise – but it falls during the Twelve Days of Christmas, which means that for Catholics, the festivities reach a high point with the Epiphany and the coming of the Three Wise Men to pay homage to the Baby Jesus.
Indeed, the Christmas season doesn’t stop when the Christmas trees come down after the Epiphany. Rather, it continues right through January until the Purification of the Virgin at Candlemas on 2 February. This radical divide between the secular year and the Church calendar is one more proof that Christianity is now counter-cultural, at least in the West.
But there is one part of the Church where the celebrations for Christmas have already been put on hold, and that is in the Holy Land, where Church leaders encouraged Christians to curb the usual festivities and decorations out of respect for the suffering caused by the current conflict. It began with the barbaric Hamas atrocities against Jews on 7 October and continued with the Israeli offensive against Hamas, which has cost the lives and livelihoods of thousands of innocent civilians. As our cover this month by Christian Adams reminds us, the place the Three Wise Men visited is now in a region disfigured by war and destruction.
Among the victims of the conflict are the Christians of the Holy Land, whose numbers have plummeted in recent years – we should remember that in 1948, before the foundation of the state of Israel, they made up some 30 per cent of the population. There are now said to be barely 1,000 Christians in Gaza. The Christians were already leaving the area before the Israeli offensive against Hamas; the displacement and loss of life has expedited a further exodus.
In East Jerusalem, Christians, including Armenians, have seen a similar catastrophic decline in numbers. We are in danger of seeing nothing less than the extinction of local Christianity in the home of Christianity itself. And although Christ and his apostles were of course Jews, we should remember that Arabs were among the very first Christians, being mentioned among the peoples gathered in Jerusalem at Pentecost. The Holy Places may attract hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in good times, but as Fr Luke Gregory OFM, our diarist this month, observed in an interview, the Church is in danger of losing something even more important: its living stones, the Christians of the region.
Before the start of the most recent conflict, Christians were subjected to the provocations of extremist Jewish factions, including settler groups, especially in Jerusalem, who sought to assert the Jewish presence at the expense of Christian and other communities. This was abetted by corrupt elements within the Churches: controversial and disputed land sales by individuals within the Greek Orthodox Church, and more recently the Armenian Church, have meant that the tiny area of Jerusalem which was home to them is being reduced even further. These extremist Jewish groups are not representative of Israel’s Jewish majority, but they have the support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
These problems may seem of far less importance than the appalling, wholescale loss of life, but any increase in the numbers of Christians leaving the region where they have lived for 2,000 years is nothing less than a tragedy. The interests of the Christian community must be considered in any peace settlement, such as that envisaged by the US administration and Israel’s Western allies. President Biden has visited the Holy Places, including Bethlehem, and has worshipped at the place of Christ’s birth. He must not forget the Christian community there, which is far larger in its significance than in its numbers. This should continue to be a triune culture with Christians as well as Jews and Muslims, and even though Christians are so much smaller in number than the others, their influence is very real.
Catholics outside the region can help them. In our charitable giving – especially in this season – we should do our best to support Christians in the Holy Land, their neighbours and their local industries, which will have suffered not just physical damage during the conflict but the loss of outlets and export routes. Organisations such as Pro Terra Sancta, which Fr Luke works with, help the Christians of the region to find fulfilling work. Without employment, these people, especially the young, will have no choice but to leave their homes and the decline will continue.
Just as importantly, we should continue to pray for our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land. It’s the most fundamental form of solidarity we can offer, and it is transformative.
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