Church funds seized in the Holy Land. Custody delegate speaks out
So far there has been no statement from the Israeli Embassy to the Holy See. An embassy official told AsiaNews that ambassador Mordechay Lewy is not in the office today.
In a statement to AsiaNews Fr. David Jaeger, the delegate of the Custody of the Holy Land, said: "Not having received any instructions as to this - and given the extreme delicacy of the subject matter - I am at this time unable to reply to reporters' questions as to whether the Custody of the Holy Land has been targeted by the attachment of Church funds reportedly decreed by an official of the Finance Ministry, a Mr. Yehezkel Abrahamoff”.
“In a personal capacity, I can express only the hope that this extraordinary initiative, if confirmed, be found to be that of an uninformed individual functionary, and that in the next few hours it will disowned and overturned by his Superiors, in keeping with the well-known treaty obligation of the State (in the framework of its Fundamental Agreement with the Holy See) to abstain rigorously from any such unilateral moves while negotiations are pending on the plane of public international law."
21/04/2005