{"id":3961,"date":"2006-12-14T09:27:41","date_gmt":"2006-12-14T09:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/a-space-in-nazareth.html"},"modified":"2006-12-14T09:27:41","modified_gmt":"2006-12-14T09:27:41","slug":"a-space-in-nazareth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/a-space-in-nazareth.html","title":{"rendered":"A space in Nazareth"},"content":{"rendered":"

A donation from the Vatican:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n

The sum of one million euros collected from members of the dioceses of Munich, Regensburg and Passau during the visit of Benedict XVI in September, will be donated in the pope\u2019s name to the Custodian of the Holy Land for the construction of a new pastoral centre measuring 30 square metres in Nazareth, near the Basilica of the Annunciation. This was revealed in a statement by the Pontifical Council \u201cCor Unum\u201d that was issued today by the Holy See press office. <\/p>\n

The statement said the President of the Council, Mgr Josef Cordes, is currently in the Holy Land, where he will stay until 19 December \u201cto testify to the spiritual nearness of the Holy Father to Christian communities there\u201d and to deliver the funds that will pave the way for the construction of the new centre. <\/p>\n

The building will be situated in an area measuring more than 30 square metres and will include areas for youth and for families apart from accommodation, meeting rooms, rooms for catechism, classrooms and a sports ground. The statement said: \u201cIt will truly be a centre of life and activity for Christians and a point of reference for pilgrims.\u201d Through Mgr Cordes, the pope expressed to Christians in Nazareth the hope that \u201ctogether with Christians of the Holy Land, they may thus feel the closeness and encouragement of all the people of God to maintain their presence in the land of Jesus and to build a culture of love notwithstanding prevalent difficulties and adversities.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Related: more on the Pope’s meeting with Prime Minister Olmert yesterday:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Oded Ben-Hur, the Israeli ambassador to the Vatican, told <\/span>Catholic News Service<\/span><\/a> that the pope spoke about "the difficult situation of the Christian community in Bethlehem." <\/p>\n

"The prime minister promised to do everything possible to alleviate" the community’s suffering and to ease Christians’ access to Bethlehem over the Christmas holidays, the ambassador said. <\/p>\n

The Vatican’s Dec. 13 statement also said the pope and prime minister spoke about peace in the Middle East. <\/p>\n

Ben-Hur said Pope Benedict thanked the prime minister for Israeli’s declaration of a cease-fire with Palestinian militias, although Ben-Hur said the prime minister said it is getting more and more difficult "to withhold reactions" to missiles being launched into Israel from Gaza. <\/p>\n

Ben-Hur said that when Olmert renewed a government invitation for the pope to visit Israel, the pope said he really wanted to make such a trip, but was looking for "a moment of calm." <\/p>\n

"The prime minister told him, ‘You can bring the calm,’" the ambassador said. <\/p>\n

Pope Benedict and Olmert met as Vatican and Israeli government representatives were scheduled to meet in Jerusalem to continue on-again, off-again negotiations regarding the legal and tax status of the Catholic Church and its institutions in Israel. <\/p>\n

Ben-Hur said Olmert told the pope he had instructed the Israeli negotiators "to make every effort to finalize the agreements." <\/p>\n

The meeting also came one day after the Vatican issued a strong statement in opposition to the Iranian government’s Dec. 11-12 conference questioning whether the Holocaust took place. <\/p>\n

Telling the pope he was "the world’s most revered moral voice," Olmert asked the pope to denounce anti-Semitism in general and the Iran conference specifically, Ben-Hur said. <\/p>\n

Pope Benedict told the prime minister the Vatican had issued a statement Dec. 12, but said he was willing to add to the statement or clarify it if the prime minister felt it would make the Vatican’s position even more clear, the ambassador said. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A donation from the Vatican: The sum of one million euros collected from members of the dioceses of Munich, Regensburg and Passau during the visit of Benedict XVI in September, will be donated in the pope\u2019s name to the Custodian of the Holy Land for the construction of a new pastoral centre measuring 30 square…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nA space in Nazareth - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/a-space-in-nazareth.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A space in Nazareth - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A donation from the Vatican: The sum of one million euros collected from members of the dioceses of Munich, Regensburg and Passau during the visit of Benedict XVI in September, will be donated in the pope\u2019s name to the Custodian of the Holy Land for the construction of a new pastoral centre measuring 30 square…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/a-space-in-nazareth.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-12-14T09:27:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"awelborn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A space in Nazareth - Via Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/a-space-in-nazareth.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A space in Nazareth - Via Media","og_description":"A donation from the Vatican: The sum of one million euros collected from members of the dioceses of Munich, Regensburg and Passau during the visit of Benedict XVI in September, will be donated in the pope\u2019s name to the Custodian of the Holy Land for the construction of a new pastoral centre measuring 30 square…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/a-space-in-nazareth.html","og_site_name":"Via Media","article_published_time":"2006-12-14T09:27:41+00:00","author":"awelborn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/a-space-in-nazareth.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/a-space-in-nazareth.html","name":"A space in Nazareth - Via Media","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website"},"datePublished":"2006-12-14T09:27:41+00:00","dateModified":"2006-12-14T09:27:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/a-space-in-nazareth.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/a-space-in-nazareth.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/12\/a-space-in-nazareth.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A space in Nazareth"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/","name":"Via Media","description":"Amy Welborn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a","name":"awelborn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","caption":"awelborn"},"description":"Amy Welborn was born in 1960, the only child of a now-retired professor of political science, a teacher-librarian-artist mother,deceased since 2001, was a teacher, librarian and artist. The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}