Mahony Cites U.S. Role in Mideast Peace

Archbishop Roger M. Mahony, back in Los Angeles after leading a U.S. Catholic fact-finding trip to the Middle East, said the overwhelming opinion there is that peace in the region “requires an active, engaged U.S. policy committed to justice and security for the Palestinian people and the people of Israel.”

At their Nov. 6-9 meeting in Baltimore, American Catholic bishops will consider issuing their first major statement on Middle East tensions since 1978. Mahony chairs the committee that will prepare the statement.

Mahony was joined by Archbishop William H. Keeler of Baltimore, another committee member, on the five-man delegation that visited the region earlier this month. The group made stopovers at the Vatican before and after the trip.

In a brief statement issued through the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese, however, Mahony said little to indicate what recommendations the bishops will make.

A principal objective of the trip, Mahony said, was to study the intifada, the 20-month-long Palestinian uprising against Israeli authorities in occupied territories. The Catholic delegation visited refugee camps in Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza and held talks with Palestinian activists and Yahva Abdul-Razzah, minister of planning and education for the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

Another major objective, he said, was to solicit views from a wide range of Israelis. The committee met with Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin and made visits to Golan Heights, a kibbutz on the Lebanese border and an Israeli settlement on the West Bank.

The committee also met with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and government leaders in Syria and Jordan. New York Cardinal John O’Connor, another member of the bishops’ Middle East committee, visited Lebanon last May.

Mahony added that “local Christian communities in each country” were particularly grateful “for the concern expressed by our visits with them.”