05-04-2004, 11:31 PM
New constraints squeeze churches in Holy Land
By Jane Lampman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
JERUSALEM – Christian churches in the Holy Land are facing an unprecedented crisis that some say is jeopardizing their future, including their capacity to maintain the faith's holy sites and charitable institutions and to educate clergy.
The churches' difficulties have been building over the past three years as the Israeli government has failed to renew visas or residence permits for hundreds of religious workers, and has begun sending tax bills to charitable groups that have long had tax-exempt status, some since the Ottoman Empire. At the same time, the separation wall being built in Jerusalem and on the West Bank is slicing through religious facilities, in some cases taking land and blocking pilgrimage routes.
"All indications point to the fact that the church is slowly but surely being strangled," says an official at the Latin Patriarchate, the Roman Catholic Church's regional office in Jerusalem, which serves Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, and Cyprus.
http://csmonitor.com/2004/0504/p01s04-wome.html