JERUSALEM – Graffiti and anti-Christian insults in Hebrew were sprayed on a wall of the Dormition Abbey during the night of May 30. Two cars were also smeared with offensive words and all tires were slashed. The abbey is located on Mount Zion in Jerusalem and held by German Benedictine monks who discovered the vandalism this morning. One of the gates of the nearby Greek Orthodox cemetery was also marked with graffiti.
The offensive words compared Christians to monkeys and called for revenge against Jesus. This incident is the latest in a succession of desecration of Christian monasteries in September and October last year.
On 4 September 2012, a gate of the Latrun monastery near Jerusalem was torched and the walls sprayed with anti-Christian insults. The following week, graffiti in Hebrew insulting Jesus, marked the gate of a Franciscan convent on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, located near the Cenacle, an important holy site for Christianity in the Holy City. A Romanian Orthodox church of St. George was also the target of stones, bottles and trash.
For Bishop Shomali, Patriarchal Vicar for Jerusalem, “ it is absolutely necessary to stop these acts of vandalism by promoting better education of the youth, especially in schools. ”Convinced that it is” a long-term process, ” the Bishop did not hesitate to say that it will take “a lot of patience.”
The Latin Patriarchate “ condemns these acts of vandalism that is happening in Jerusalem, the Holy City for the three religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). Such an act of violence is a despicable attempt to undermine coexistence between believers. ”
By:Christophe Lafontaine
