Mideast Catholic bishops urge Israel not to use the Bible ‘to justify injustices’
Bishops from the Middle East, summoned by the pope to the Vatican, ended their two-week meeting with a statement that called on Israel to end its "occupation" of Arab lands and to stop using the Bible to defend injustices.
The dwindling numbers of Christians living in the Middle East was to be the principal reason for the meeting called by Pope Benedict XVI, but the joint communiqué also warned Israel about "injustices" against Palestinians.
The synod's message said that "recourse to theological and biblical positions which use the word of God to wrongly justify injustices is not acceptable," in an apparent reference to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
