Read below: see an account by a Catholic priest at the Cenacle, AND LEARN ABOUT THE DIASPORA YESHIVA, AT THE CENACLE THAT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH SO COVETS:
MOST OF OUR DISPUTES WITH THE CHURCH CENTER AROUND THAT ROOM.
SO WHAT KIND OF BACK DOOR DEAL IS BEING MADE RIGHT THIS MINUTE, while Olmert and Peres are still in charge?
Remember the secret letter brought by Shimon Peres to the pope in April 2006 , one week after Olmert was "elected": what was the content of that secret letter? Did it have ANYTHING to do with the Cenacle Room and the Diaspora Yeshiva?
Please , Rabbis, don't let this item pass you by. This is a dead serious matter, that should be dealt with in the Knesset, and URGENTLY, before they start the "RENOVATIONS".
Go back to my article: The Machinations of the Vatican...., 2006, for more details on the story.
DS
http://diaspora.org.il/intro.html
Israel to Invest 6 Million Shekels in Upcoming Visit by Pope
(IsraelNN.com) The State of Israel plans to invest some 6 million shekels in tourism upgrades and renovations in anticipation of the upcoming visit by Pope Benedict XVI, slated for May. The multi-million-shekel investment by the Tourism Ministry will include preparations at such sites as Qasr el Yahud, the Good Samaritan site and the Cenacle (site of the Last Supper), among others.
Preparations for the visit began this week with the first of a series of conferences to discuss activities to promote Christian tourism to Israel. Among the participants were incoming tour operators specializing in the Christian market, the Israel Hotel Association and representatives of the municipalities that will be included in the Catholic leader's itinerary.
Three million tourists visited the State of Israel in 2008, noted the ministry in its statement to the media. Of those, two million were Christians, half of whom were pilgrims. Most of the tourists visited Christian and Jewish sites in Jerusalem, the Galilee and Bethlehem.
Marketing activities are expected to include preparation of promotional material to be distributed to journalists accompanying the Pope, who is the spiritual leader of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church. The ministry will also arrange tours and visits to tourist sites for the papal delegation and the media.
"The Pope's visit to the Holy Land is an important and very significant visit that represents a strategic anchor for pilgrimage tourism to Israel in the coming years," noted Tourism Minister Ruchama Avraham-Balila. She added that the visit would also strengthen Israel's image as a central point for pilgrimages and tourism, "especially in this period when the tourism industry is dealing with the ramifications of the global economic crisis."
http://www.fatherbobwild.org/pilgrim_4.htm
CHAPTER FOUR
JERUSALEM: CENACLE, EMMAUS, MASS AT THE HOLY SEPULCHRE- excerpts: please read, to see what is at stake here.
" The Cenacle, or Upper Room, is, for us Christians, the second holiest place on earth after the Holy Sepulchre. Here the first Eucharist was celebrated. Here was the meeting place of the first church – Mary, the Apostles, and the first followers of Jesus. Here Jesus appeared to his Apostles after his Resurrection. Here the Holy Spirit descended upon the infant church. Here the Apostles and disciples continued to gather for their meetings (the Council of Jerusalem, for example) and fellowship. From this room the Good News spread to the known ends of the world. Surely one of the holiest places on earth.
I knew very little about the Cenacle, so I matter-of-factly expected to find a shrine of some kind, decorations, vigil lights, icons and perhaps paintings of the Last Supper – in short, I expected to see many symbols of the astounding events I have just described.
There was nothing, absolutely nothing! I went in and out of the actual Cenacle several times, thinking that I must have the wrong place. (It's happened before.)
When I finally discovered I was indeed in the Cenacle, a flood of powerful mixed emotions overcame me – which is rare for me. I was confused, hurt, angry, bewildered, sad, shocked – all at the same time. There was absolutely nothing here! Not one Christian symbol, not one picture, not one vigil light. Nothing, absolutely nothing!
I found a stone block (there are not even chairs or benches to sit on) and just sat there for two hours. Now I was guilty of saying what that young man said in this Cave of Bethlehem: "Is this it!" Here of all places one really needed to exercise pure faith. On one of the upper portions of a column there is a mother pelican feeding her starving offspring with her blood. This was a cherished Eucharistic symbol from Crusader times. This is the only Christian symbol in the room. The only others are Muslim, left over from the time when this room had been used for centuries as a mosque. Everything else is bare, and not even clean at that. If I had had the gift of tears, I would have wept then. Who is responsible for this? Why this barrenness and utter neglect? Why, why, Lord, in such a holy place?
I was to return here several times, but I must admit that on this first occasion I was unable to really pray or enter into the Presence. The shock was too profound. If I prayed at all I prayed against the attitudes and forces that had conspired to keep this place in such a state. I prayed that the walls of prejudice would come down forever. I sat there in sadness because Christ is still not accepted, still not believed in, by his own people.
For I was on Mount Zion. Down below was David's tomb. Adjacent to the Cenacle, in the same complex of buildings actually, was a yeshiva, a school for the study of Torah. The Christians did not own this building, and thus had no say over the up-keep of the Cenacle. The drabness of the Cenacle was a dramatic symbol for me of the rejection of Christ. He was not welcome here. "He came unto his own and his own did not know who he was."
..................
I left, and walked to the sacred Wailing Wall of the Jewish people that is not far from the Cenacle. ......
It is very inspiring to see the reverence with which people approach and pray at this Wall. I know this is going against much of modern ecumenical thinking, but I prayed at that Wall for the conversion of the Jewish people to Christ.
............. Then I made my way to the Cenacle again.
Ever since my first painful visit to the Cenacle, and, since I had learned from a priest in the Abbey that no Christian services were allowed in the Cenacle,....... The place should be open to Christians.
........ But why, oh why, is that the situation in this holy place?"
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