Priests Come To Blows In Church Of The Nativity
Jesus wept.
A metaphor played out, pay attention:
Seven people were injured on Thursday when Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests came to blows in a dispute over how to clean the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
Following the Christmas celebrations, Greek Orthodox priests set up ladders to clean the walls and ceilings of their part of the church, which is built over the site where Jesus Christ is believed to have been born.
But the ladders encroached on space controlled by Armenian priests, according to photographers who said angry words ensued and blows quickly followed.
For a quarter of an hour bearded and robed priests laid into each other with fists, brooms and iron rods while the photographers who had come to take pictures of the annual cleaning ceremony recorded the whole event.
A dozen unarmed Palestinian policemen were sent to try to separate the priests, but two of them were also injured in the unholy melee.
“As usual the cleaning of the church afer Christmas is a cause of problems,” Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh told AFP, adding that he has offered to help ease tensions.
“For the two years that I have been here everything went more or less calmly,” he said. “It’s all finished now.”
The Church of the Nativity, like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City, is shared by various branches of Christianity, each of which controls and jealously guards a part of the holy site.
(AP)
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I can assure you this had nothing to do with Christianity but rather how much the Greeks, Armenians and Turks hate each other. Its a pitty.
December 27th, 2007 at 2:05 pmHa! They should’ve sent in some Catholic nuns with rulers.
December 27th, 2007 at 5:39 pmIf it had been Franciscan priests in the mix the battle would have been rather one sided. I like the bit about the nuns, I can assure you that if Sister Anne from my grammar school days was there, no such nonsense would have happened. (Imagine Enrnest Borgnine in a habit, she regularly scared the shit out of me. re: The Penguin in Blues Bros.) Looking back as an adult, she probably kept me out of more trouble than anyone besides my dad. At the time though, you don’t quite see it that way.
I agree it is more of a nationality thing rather than sectarian, but oh doesn’t the press love to point anything that might make any Christian sect look bad.
Tangent time: I have a theory that the reason that the left and MSM do not criticize islam is because they fear retaliation, I wonder also if messages were sent to them telling them no criticism, or else.
December 27th, 2007 at 7:44 pm@ticticboom
Ha! They should’ve sent in some Catholic nuns with rulers.
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From someone who spent (survived) the mid-to-late 1960s in Catholic grade school with “fascist” post-Mussolini Italian Oblate Nuns … LMFAO!!!
December 28th, 2007 at 10:05 am