THE TABLET, December 24th, 1955. VOL. 206, No. 6031

Published as a Newspaper

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

FOUNDED IN 1840

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

DECEM BER 24th, 1955

NINEPENCE

Choices Before th e M a ltese: The Report of the Round Table Conference B e th le h em and Nazareth Today: A Recent Pilgrimage. By Desmond J. Leahy Feel M y H a n d s : A Christmas Consideration. By John P. Murphy The Star o f B e th le h em : Astronomical Enquiries. By J. C. Marsh-Edwards Listen, Lordyngs, to m y Tale: A Page of Seasonable Verse

Fifty Q uestion s: An Examination Paper for Christmas C r iscrostics, C rossw ord and Chess: Competitions for the Holiday Evenings B o o k s R e v i e w e d : Jesus in His Time, by Daniel-Rops ; The Scrolls from the Dead Sea, by

Edmund Wilson ; Grimaldi, by Richard Findlater ; Mr. Macready, by J. C. Trewin ; Shane Leslie's Ghost Book ; The Ghost Book, by Alasdair Alpin MacGregor ; The Letters o f John o f Salisbury, edited by W. J. Millor and H. E. Butler ; The Metalogicon o f John o f Salisbury, translated by Daniel D. McGarry ; The Meaning o f the Monastic Life, by Louis Bouyer ; English Dolls' Houses, by Vivien Greene ; The Keepers o f the Walls, by Helga Harrison ; Bus Stop, by Georgina Horley ; Behind the Mirror, by Robin Maugham ; The China Shepherdess, by Felicien Marceau ; Roman and Saxon Withington, by H. P. R. Finberg ; and The Duppa-Isham Correspondence, edited by Sir Gyles Isham. Reviewed by J. McDonald, L. Johnston, W. J. Igoe, T. G. Weiler, Professor David Knowles, Desmond

Schlegel, O.S.B., Adrian Brookholding-Jones, Isabel Quigly and Godfrey Anstruther, O.P.

CURFEW IN BETHLEHEM T HERE is a curfew in Bethlehem this Christmas, and the main road from Jerusalem, which has been opened on previous Christmas nights for those wishing to assist at the Midnight Mass in the place of Our Lord’s Nativity, seems unlikely to be open this year. The scenes of His life are again filled with tension ; travel permits are necessary and often difficult to obtain, especially in Galilee. Yet even so, with all the shadows that hang across the whole of the Middle East, there are some signs of goodwill.

Church of the Mosaics at Tabgha. Some religious communities were obliged, for a considerable time, to obtain assistance from the Pontifical Mission, being unable, on the one hand, to function so long as their establishments remained occupied, and, on the other hand, having to wait a long time until they received the rents due to them.

In a letter to the Israeli Government which we print on another page, Mgr. Vergani, the Representative in Israel of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, announces the final settlement of all claims which the Catholic Church had against the Israeli Government regarding the return and repair of some thirty religious establishments which, during the fighting of 1948, were occupied by the Israeli forces or, being situated in the fighting zone, had to be evacuated by their inhabitants. Mgr. Vergani has said elsewhere that the Israeli Government has treated the return of ecclesiastical property as a decision of principle, with no conditions attached, and not as a bargaining issue, and the general improvement since 1948 of the position of the Latin Christian Community—apart from the question of the Holy Places, which are mostly in Jordan— is evidence of the goodwill of the Israeli Government.

The buildings returned include, in Jerusalem, the House of the Salesian Fathers and of the Salesian Sisters in Musrara ; the nearby Italian Hospital ; the Abbey and Church of the Dormition on Mount Sion, the Hospice of the Brothers of St. John at Nazareth, the Hospice of the Mount of Beatitudes near Capernaum, the Franciscan Hospice at Haifa, and the

The Israeli Government has recognized the juridical position of those ecclesiastical establishments, which, according to Canon Law, are Bona Ecclesiastica, and of which the Holy Father is the lawful Supreme Administrator, though they were termed “German property.” The legal status of the Christian communities in Israel remains what it was under the Mandate, which in turn derived from the legal situation which existed at the time of the Ottoman Empire. By this so-called system of “Capitulations,” foreigners and members of various confessions enjoyed and still enjoy autonomy in the administration of their affairs. The Courts of the Religious Communities continue to have exclusive jurisdiction in matters of personal status, such as marriage, and internal administration of religious property.

Under the British Mandate this Turkish legal system was substantially left intact, but equal rights were given to the Jewish and to the various Christian communities. The State of Israel made no constitutional changes. But the Egyptian Government has now abolished, with effect from January 1st, all Moslem and other religious courts, which similarly, as in Israel, had jurisdiction over the affairs of the various communities. In protest against this decision a “Christmas of Mourning” has been proclaimed from the pulpits of all churches. The protest was signed by the local heads of the