Clergymen clash at Bethlehem birthplace of Jesus

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**The annual cleaning of one of Christianity’s holiest churches deteriorated into a brawl between rival clergy Wednesday, as dozens of monks feuding over sacred space at the Church of the Nativity battled each other with brooms until police intervened.
The ancient church, built over the traditional site of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, is shared by three Christian denominations — Roman Catholics, Armenians and Greek Orthodox. Wednesday’s fight erupted between Greek and Armenian clergy, with both sides accusing each other of encroaching on parts of the church to which they lay claim.
The monks were tidying up the church ahead of Orthodox Christmas celebrations in early January, following celebrations by Western Christians on Dec. 25. The fight erupted between monks along the border of their respective areas. Some shouted and hurled brooms.
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Read more at link

news.yahoo.com/clergymen-clash-bethlehem-birthplace-jesus-151107022.html

I’m a little confused here. Are the “Armenians” Catholic? And why on earth would they and the Orthodox not behave like true Christians and share the “Peace on Earth” of Jesus’ birthplace?
 
Someone should send Jimmy Carter in to broker a peace agreement. :rolleyes:
 
:: Singing::

“Why can’t we be friends?
Why can’t we be friends?
Why can’t we be friends?
Why can’t we be friends?”

Seriously: St. Nicholas is gonna bring these guys coal for sure next year.
 
And during Holy Week there will be a clash at the Holy Sepulchre…
 
Loboto-Me said:
I’m a little confused here. Are the “Armenians” Catholic? And why on earth would they and the Orthodox not behave like true Christians and share the “Peace on Earth” of Jesus’ birthplace?
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The Armenians are Armenian Orthodox. The fight was between Armenian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox.

Very sad.

Msgr Charles Pope has a column about it today here: Orthodox Priests Fighting In Church of the Nativity – A Personal Reflection
I had reported to the Latin sacristy at 5:30 AM and vested for the 6:00 AM Mass. One of the Franciscan Friars spoke to me in a kind but firm way about the rules that must be observed. He warned me that under no circumstances was I to set foot outside of the sacristy once I had vested. To do so, he warned me, would likely provoke a violent response from the Orthodox clergy, standing twenty feet away near the entrance to the supulchre. When I smiled in stunned wonderment, he reiterated, “Father I am very serious, if you do so you will provoke an international incident.”
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Loboto-Me said:
Thank you for the information, and also the new link. I have to wonder why oh why do the Orthodox fight amongst themselves??
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Maybe because they don’t submit to the Pope? 😃
That is one of the beauties of Catholicism. If, say, the Franciscans and the Dominicans were both wanting the same chapel, the Pope could say, “Right. This order gets it.”
And that would be the end of the story. No more fighting.
 
GraceSofia said:
Maybe because they don’t submit to the Pope? 😃
That is one of the beauties of Catholicism. If, say, the Franciscans and the Dominicans were both wanting the same chapel, the Pope could say, “Right. This order gets it.”
And that would be the end of the story. No more fighting.
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That’s like the old joke about the Franciscan and Jesuit who were arguing about which was the greatest order. So they prayed that God would answer the issue. Out of a cloud a piece of paper appeared and descended to them. It said:

“My children, please stop these silly arguments. God, O.P.”
 
johnnykins said:
That’s like the old joke about the Franciscan and Jesuit who were arguing about which was the greatest order. So they prayed that God would answer the issue. Out of a cloud a piece of paper appeared and descended to them. It said:

“My children, please stop these silly arguments. God, O.P.”
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LOL
 
Loboto-Me said:
The annual cleaning of one of Christianity’s holiest churches deteriorated into a brawl between rival clergy…with both sides accusing each other of encroaching on parts of the church to which they lay claim…Some shouted and hurled brooms.
not again…

“that’s MY side MINE.” “no its MINE not YOURS.” “stay off MY side.” “but its MY side, you stay on YOUR side this is MINE MINE MINE.”:banghead:

why don’t they just shake hands like men and clean the whole Church together??
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The faithful could do much to remedy this by offering prayers, the rosary, and masses to prevent this from happening again.
 
This seems ridiculous but it has very serious consequences. Parts of the building are in dire need of repair and they can’t agree on a way to do this without fighting.

The only reason they don’t fight more is by maintaining an intricate status quo. There’s a ladder that has been up against the outside wall for almost 150 years because nobody will budge on who is responsible for it. The windowsill is common ground and common ground can’t be rearranged without agreement.

One of the holiest sites in the country will have to collapse before anyone will allow any repairs :mad:
 
Extremely tragic. Glad the RC side was not directly involved. 😦

May God help us all.

Amen.👍
 
Loboto-Me said:
I have to wonder why oh why do the Orthodox fight amongst themselves??.
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You might as well ask why do Catholics fight amongst themselves. Given the ferocity of some of the arguments here at CAF, I don’t doubt that we’d hit each other with brooms if we could.

Hmm…:hmmm:

Perhaps that would make a good smiley. :o

As to why the fights are a regular occurrence at the Church of the Nativity, I heard on the radio that it has to do with customary law. The three groups have carefully divided up the building into zones of control… more or less, zones of ownership. And no one wants to cede control over such sacred territory.

However, customary law is that if ownership is not defended, if use by others is granted, then ownership is lost or at least an easement is permanently being granted. Hence each of the three sides is very careful to make sure that the other sides do not walk on, clean or otherwise use their section of the church. Similarly, all three sides want to renovate the Church of the Nativity, but none want to allow the others to help pay for the repairs since paying for the repairs is granting ownership.
 
Dale, these are clergy! They should know better, and should realize that they’re hurting the Lord, not to mention their parishioners outlook on how things should be handled.

Why can’t they each have a meeting and come to an agreement where someone other than one of “them” be hired to fix the Church? They could set up rules and have overseers from all the groups to make sure this company doesn’t desecrate anything.
 
The Clergy Wrestling Federation’s “Throwdown at the Manager”

Tickets on sale now!
 
This is really not surprising at all. When the ethnic, cultural, and political divisions are more important than religious beliefs this is the result. Sad!
 
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