The duty of English Catholics towards Palestine was stressed at the National Congress of the Catholic Women’s League held at Birmingham in connection with the Catholic Congress now in session. The Countess of Denbigh presided.
Lady Mark Sykes, President of the League, said it would be an absolute disgrace if they left Palestine. They had to show that there were English Catholics who realized it as their business to spread the Faith. The responsibility of governing Palestine had been allotted to Britain. Many of the soldiers who fought and died were Catholics. We must not forget that: it puts another obligation upon us.
It was because we had this mandate, because the government was English and onr language had become a need to the inhabitants, that English-speaking Catholics mus go forward to the Holy Land, as the Crusaders did in the past.
Dom Bede Camm, speaking of his imprressions of Palestine, said that Bethlehem was the least disappointing centre in the Holy Land. It presented an agreable contrast to Jerusalem, which was full of people averse to them as Catholics, and a dirty and impossible city.
No Jew is allowed into Bethlehem–at least no Jew is allowed to spend a night there. The population of 10,000 comprised 6,000 Catholics and 4,000 Orthodox Christians of the Greek Schism. One felt that Bethlehem had the true Catholic atmosphere.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
