The National Coalition of American Nuns has adopted a resolution expressing “strong support of the current status of Jerusalem under Israeli control” and opposing “any possible internationalization of the Holy City.” The statement was approved last week at a convention of the nuns in New Orleans and issued from the organization’s Chicago office. There are about 180,000 nuns and the coalition is believed to speak for a majority.
The statement added that “the Jews have always been in Jerusalem” and that “it is their spiritual home and the daily prayers of the Jewish people voices their historic relationship to the city.” In addition, the nuns declared. “Israel has rebuilt Jerusalem, pouring into it millions of dollars and untold human resources. Jerusalem is now available to all faiths and never before have the holy places been so secure and accessible.”
The declaration was hailed by Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee, who said “this forthright and morally courageous action by these committed Catholic religious women is a service to the cause of redeeming truth and justice in the understanding of the realities of the present Middle East situation. He further said the statement testified to the growing solidarity between Catholics, Jews.
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