Appeal for peace in the Holy Land. (News in Brief: Israel).

Jerusalem--John Paul II has once again called for a commitment to peace in the Holy Land. During an address at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo on August 15,2002, he asked: "When will it be understood that the coexistence of the Israeli and Palestinian peoples cannot be brought about by arms?" He appealed to the Israeli and Palestinian political leaders to set out anew on the path of sincere negotiations. And he asked the international community to "be present in the area, offering its mediation" to speed up the process towards peace.

On August 14, the Latin Patriarch, Michael Sabbab of Jerusalem, led a delegation of Christian leaders to talk with the spiritual leader of the militant Hamas movement, in a bid to stop suicide bombings against Israelis. The patriarch was attempting to revive consultations among Palestinian leaders to seek an end to the attacks. Sabbah stated that revenge on both sides had to end, and called on Muslims and Jews to pray for peace.

At the end of September, the Latin Patriarch said that the two-year intifada had been a catastrophe for the Holy Land. "Nothing good has come of it," he said as he evaluated the confrontations which began in September 2000. "There have been dead and victims on both sides," he told Vatican Radio. "I hope that after these two years, political leaders--Israeli and Palestinian--will be able to understand and be convinced that this way of death is cruel and useless. . . .These two years will have been a useless parenthesis in the history of the conflict."

According to Patriarch Sabbah, the violence has also caused an increase in the exodus of Catholics from the Holy Land, though Muslims and Jews have likewise been affected. "There is always someone who is leaving," he said. "Of course, given that Christians are few, their emigration causes a greater effect on Christian survival in these holy places," the patriarch said. "The siege and the curfew, which make life impossible, force many who can emigrate, to go. This situation. . .obliges everyone to think of leaving the country, except the few who are really convinced they have a vocation to be Christians in this land and, thanks be to God, there are still persons like this."