PATRIARCH OF JERUSALEM SEES "CLASH OF IGNORANCES" Zenit.org, Rome, May 19, 2004

ROME, MAY 19, 2004 (Zenit.org).- It is ignorance of another's civilization that leads someone to see him as an enemy, says the Latin-rite patriarch of Jerusalem.

"We are living in a situation of great violence in the world, particularly in the Holy Land," said Patriarch Michel Sabbah, who is attending the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

"But religion is manipulated and, in the name of the rights of nations or of freedom, it is assumed that there can be recourse to violence," he told Vatican Radio in an interview Sunday. Yet, "the ways to peace are the ways of God."

Patriarch Sabbah said that men kill and destroy one another "because they are ignorant of each other."

There is "a clash of ignorances, not of civilizations," he contended. "There is ignorance of the other's civilization and that is why he is regarded as an enemy."

His short-term outlook for the Holy Land is not optimistic.

"Humanly speaking, for the time being there is no perspective of peace," he said. "In the meantime, we live by bearing the cross, but with the cross we also bear in our hearts all the hope of the Resurrection."

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Jerusalem Patriarch raps both Israelis, Palestinians CWNews.com, Rome, May. 18

Rome, May. 18 (CWNews.com) - "For the moment, humanly speaking, there is no prospect of peace," admits the Latin Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, Michel Sabbah.

Speaking on Vatican Radio on March 18, Patriarch Sabbah lamented that the combatants in the Israeli-Palestinian struggle are exploiting religious beliefs, and invoking democratic principles, in an attempt to justify violent conflict. That approach can not possibly succeed, he said; "the paths to peace are not those of death and hatred, those that lead to the destruction of the other party."

The Palestinian prelate-- who is in Rome this week for meetings of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, of which he is a member-- said that the conflict today is fired by ignorance, as Jews and Palestinians "take each other for enemies," without an effort to find common ground for a negotiated solution to their problems.

The result of that approach, Patriarch Sabbah said, is that both sides are subject to domination by world powers which may intervene in the region to serve their own interests, "not taking into due consideration the rights and dignity of others."