Cleveland Bishop Nelson Perez was among 10 Hispanic bishops who spent nine days – Jan. 18-27 – in the Holy Land on a pilgrimage for peace. The trip, coordinated by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, was to help them understand the situation there and to advocate for bridges, not walls, alluding to walled settlements in the area.
Bishop Perez visited the Holy Land in 1998, but said he was not exposed to the conflict of the land.
“In some respects, I visited a different Holy Land this time,” he said. “The human struggle continues to be very powerful. It is moving, unsettling and hopeful.”
“The human struggle – the quest and hope for peace – is present and takes the form of today’s issues. In Jesus’ time, it was the struggle against the Holy Roman Empire,” Bishop Perez said. “There is always a quest for peace and humanity. It can be dramatic and intense at times and very diverse in perspective, with all sorts of narratives,” he said yet, the presence of the Church and the Christian faith, which was born there, remains in the midst of the conflict.
“The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it,” the bishop said, referring to a passage in the Gospel of St. John. He said he got a sense of that light while in the Holy Land.
Among the sites he and the other bishops visited were Nazareth, Bethlehem, Jerusalem and the Old City, the West Bank, Gaza, Hebron, Galilee, the Western Wall, Dome of the Rock, Susya, the Oasis of Peace, Mount of Olives, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Bethlehem University and Yad Vashem, the world holocaust remembrance center.
Visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre can be chaotic with people from many faiths praying simultaneously at altars in different chapels, the bishop said, recalling how the USCCB group spent 45 minutes in silent prayer. “But you could hear the chanting of the others. You get a sense that something powerful, something cosmic happened there. For us Christians, it was the resurrection of Christ. The chanting, incense and prayers of the others are very different but there is a human energy and dynamism.”
Bishop Perez said he was struck by how few Christians remain in the Holy Land. In Gaza, which is walled and controlled by Hamas, 2.3 million people “are in a virtual human prison,” he said, adding they can’t get in or out without permits, which are difficult to obtain. Fewer than 1,000 people are Catholic. In Bethlehem, only about 15-20 percent of the population is Christian compared to 80 percent at one time.
The bishops celebrated Mass daily at significant sites and prayed for peace and justice. They also met with human rights advocates, local clergy and religious, Palestinian and Israeli residents and civic leaders, in addition to observing the work of Catholic Relief Services in the area.
Bishop Perez is chairman of the USCCB Subcommittee on Hispanic Affairs and recently was elected chairman of the Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church.