Saint Marie-Aphonsine Danil Ghattas, canonized by Pope Francis May 17, 2015.
Sunday in St. Peter's Square in Rome, Pope Francis canonized two 19th century Palestinian nuns,
Marie Alphonsine Ghattas and
Mariam Baouardy as saints.
BBC News:
Marie Alphonsine Ghattas and Mariam Bawardy are among four 19th Century nuns who are being canonised by Pope Francis in Rome on Sunday.
At the house of Marie Alphonsine in Ein Karem, Sister Agatha shows around a large tour group of Christian women from Nazareth, in northern Israel.
"Every week parishioners come here," she tells me. "They're very proud of her. She was Palestinian and she started her work here in Palestine.
"She was our first teacher, the first one to educate Arab girls and women. Now, we're continuing her mission and we're famous because of our students."
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At the Carmel Convent in Bethlehem, flags and banners have been put up to celebrate the canonisation of Mariam Bawardy, born in the Galilee.
A mystic, she is said to have carried out many miracles and to have experienced stigmata - wounds representing those suffered by Jesus on the cross.
"She's special because she was very simple, very humble," says Sister Feryal. "This is really the way for being a saint."
The ceremony was attended by approximately 2,000 Palestinian Christians and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whom Pope Francis hailed as
"an angel of peace."
The Pope made the remark as he presented the Palestinian leader with a medallion.
President Abbas is visiting the Vatican for the canonisation of two 19th-Century Palestinian nuns on Sunday.
His visit came days after the Vatican said it would formally recognise Palestinian statehood in a treaty.
The treaty states that the Holy See favours a two-state solution to the conflict with Israel and allows the Vatican to oversee aspects of Roman Catholic life in the areas President Abbas controls.
Mahmoud Abbas with Pope Francis on Sunday.
While the road to canonization for both nuns began under John Paul II (Baouardy) and Benedict XVI (Danil Ghattas), Pope Francis recognized the final miracle necessary for both women to be canonized.
The canonization comes at a time when Palestinian Christians have been emigrating from Palestine at high rates due to both the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and to Hamas control of the Gaza Strip. Currently, about 8% of the Palestinian population in the West Bank is Christian, with the majority of them living in Bethlehem.
It is also to be duly noted that for all of the American right wing's concern trolling over the persecution of Christians worldwide, Palestinian Christians are not feeling that concern. At all.
Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem has emphasized that most Christians around the world were silent during Israel's 2002 siege on Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity during the Second Intifada, and continue to turn a blind eye to the Israeli occupation's impact on the city's holy sites and Christian communities today.
"The dangerous thing is that the Christian Zionists and the Jewish lobby in this country (U.S.) are entering into an unholy marriage – so to say. The issue is they hate each other but they want to spend time together in the same bed for selfish reasons. Both groups, for their own motives, are not interested in stability and peace in the region," Raheb says on his website.
While the Vatican's treaty with the State of Palestine (the Vatican has actually recognized a Palestinian state since 2013) and the canonization of Ghattas and Bawardy are, to an extent, symbolic gestures, I'm pretty sure that the Pope's gesture to the State of Palestine means a to Palestinian Christians worldwide (many Palestinian Christians who have emigrated from Palestine live in South America).
And Francis is making it increasingly difficult for me not to like him.