Catholic abbot ordered to hide cross necklace near Western Wall in Jerusalem: 'It's inappropriate'
Israeli ambassador to Holy See 'shocked and appalled' by viral video
A Roman Catholic abbot is lamenting the confrontational end to his tour of Jerusalem after he was ordered to remove his necklace with a cross pendant hanging from it during a visit to the Western Wall.
The July 19 confrontation was caught on video as Nikodemus Schnabel, abbot of the Old City’s Dormition Abbey, joined Germany’s Minister of Education and Research, Bettina Stark-Watzinger, for a walking tour when he was stopped by a women reported to be an employee of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation (WWHF), an official Israeli governmental body.
In a viral video shared on social media, a WWHF usher tells Schnabel his pectoral cross was "really big and inappropriate for this place ... you need to respect it. Please put it inside [your clothing]."
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Forschungsministerin @starkwatzinger erlebt am Mittwochmorgen in Jerusalem mit, wie Abt @PaterNikodemus auf dem Platz vor der Klagemauer (außerhalb der Gebetszone) aufgefordert wird, sein Kreuz abzunehmen. Die Offizielle sagt, es handele sich um eine neue Regelung. @derspiegelpic.twitter.com/Zy1GxBVCRP
— Christoph Schult (@schultchristoph) July 19, 2023
"This is very harsh,” Schnable responded. “... You're not respecting my religion. You're hindering me from my human right to ... no, this is not a provocation, I am an abbot. This is my dress. This is how I'm dressed.”
The usher then clarified that her request was not about the abbot’s dress.
"I didn't tell you to do something with your dress. I told you to do something with your cross,” she said.
“The cross is part of my dress code,” replied Schnable. “I'm a Roman Catholic abbot. This is how I dress …”
Following the incident, the abbot tweeted: “The unfortunately not so nice end of a nice tour of the old town through the morning #Jerusalem. It is painful to see how the climate in this wonderful city is changing more and more for the worse under the new government. Jerusalem is big enough for everyone!”
Schnable later told Arabic news outlet i24 he was “very surprised’ by the usher’s request.
“I was not trying to provoke anybody, this was the end of a very long tour through the Old City,” he said.
“I believe that Jerusalem is an open city for anybody, and for me, the future of Jerusalem is people from Jewish, Muslim, and Christian religions coming to pray in this holy city. For me, it's not understandable that people don't accept me being here.”
After the video went viral, Raphael Schutz, Israeli Ambassador to the Holy See, tweeted he was “shocked and appalled” by the incident, adding, “We must prevent these unspeakable acts and we must ensure that they are not repeated. Freedom of religion and worship are guaranteed in Israel and so it must continue.”
Officials with the Palestinian Mission to the United Kingdom called the incident an act of “abhorrent discrimination against Palestinian Christians and Christian clergy in occupied #Jerusalem.”
Rabbi Tuly Weisz of Israel365 told The Christian Post that, in his view, at least some of the tension can be attributed to the political turmoil in Israel.
“Israel is in the midst of unprecedented tension between those on the Left who want a more democratic country and those on the Right who want a more Jewish state,” he told CP via email Monday. “Sadly, Christians are stuck in the middle of this tug of war and have borne some of the brunt of the growing civil unrest.
“I pray that when calmer minds prevail, the situation for our Christian friends will improve and Jerusalem assumes its destined role as a ‘House of prayer for all nations.’”
The WWHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In April, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in the Holy Land attributed the recent uptick in attacks in the Christian quarter on radical Jewish extremists feeling empowered and "protected" under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa told The Associated Press that the Christian community in the region is experiencing heightened assaults from extremists, who he claims are gaining confidence from Israel’s most conservative government in recent history.
These extremists, he added, have been increasingly harassing clergy and damaging religious properties at a concerning pace.
“The frequency of these attacks, the aggressions, has become something new,” Pizzaballa was quoted as saying. “These people feel they are protected … that the cultural and political atmosphere now can justify, or tolerate, actions against Christians.”
During Easter Holy week, thousands of Christians from various denominations were dismayed by Israeli authorities' decision to reduce the number of people allowed to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City from 10,000 to 1,800, citing safety and fire concerns.
Currently, there are about 15,000 Christians in Jerusalem, with the majority being Palestinians.
Yusef Daher from the Inter-Church Center told the AP that 2023 is shaping up to be the worst year for Christians in a decade. The center has documented at least seven serious instances of vandalism of church properties from January to mid-March, a sharp increase from six anti-Christian cases recorded in all of 2022, the newswire said.
Ian M. Giatti is a reporter for The Christian Post and the author of BACKWARDS DAD: a children's book for grownups. He can be reached at: [email protected].
