Monks arrested in J’lem church brawl
Nov 9, 2008 13:27 | Updated Nov 9, 2008 19:00
Jerusalem Post
Monks arrested in J’lem church brawl Police rushed into
one of Christianity’s holiest churches Sunday and arrested two
clergyman after an argument between monks erupted into a brawl next to
the site of Jesus’ tomb. The clash broke out between Armenian and
Greek Orthodox monks in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, revered as
the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial and resurrection. It began as
Armenian clergymen marched in an annual procession commemorating the
4th-century discovery of the cross believed to have been used to
crucify Jesus. It ended with the arrival of dozens of riot policemen
who separated the sides, seizing a bearded Armenian monk in a
red-and-pink robe and a black-clad Greek Orthodox monk with a bloody
gash on his forehead. Both men were taken away in handcuffs. Six
Christian sects divide control of the ancient church. They regularly
fight over turf and influence, and Israeli police are occasionally
forced to intervene.
The feud revolves around a demand by the Greek Orthodox to post a
monk inside the Edicule – the ancient structure built on what is
believed to be the tomb of Jesus – during the Armenian procession. The
Armenians refused, and when they tried to march the Greek Orthodox
monks blocked their way. We were keeping resistance so that the
procession could not pass through … and establish a right that they
don’t have," said a young Greek Orthodox monk with a cut next to his
left eye. The monk, who gave his name as Serafim, said he sustained
the wound when an Armenian punched him from behind and broke his
glasses.
Father Pakrat of the Armenian Patriarchate said the Greek demand was
"against the status quo arrangement and against the internal
arrangement of the Holy Sepulcher." He said the Greeks attacked
first. Archbishop Aristarchos, the chief secretary of the Greek
Orthodox patriarchate, said his monks had not initiated the
violence. "I’m sorry that these events happened in front of the Holy
Sepulcher, which is the most holy religious monument of Christianity,"
he said.
After the brawl, the church was crowded with police holding assault
rifles and equipped with riot gear, standing beside Golgotha, where
Jesus is believed to have been crucified, and the long smooth stone
marking the place where tradition holds his body was laid out. Police
spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police were forced to intervene after
fighting was reported. They arrested two monks, one from each side, he
said.
The feud is only one of a bewildering array of rivalries among
churchmen in the Holy Sepulcher. The government has long wanted to
build a fire exit in the church, which regularly fills with thousands
of pilgrims and has only one main door, but the plan is on hold
because the sects cannot agree where the exit will be built. In
another example, a ladder placed on a ledge over the entrance sometime
in the 19th century has remained there ever since because of a dispute
over who has the authority to take it down.
More recently, a spat between Ethiopian and Coptic Christians is
delaying badly needed renovations to a rooftop monastery that
engineers say could collapse.