Here's an interesting flak going on between Israel and Arab Catholics. I'm not sure how much of this is Catholic doctrine and how much of it is convenient application of hermeneutics-
Archbishop Cyril Salim Bustros, head of the commission which drew up the statement, went one step further, saying: "The theme of the Promised Land cannot be used as a basis to justify the return of the Jews to Israel and the expatriation of the Palestinians."
"For Christians, one can no longer talk of the land promised to the Jewish people," the Lebanese-born head of the Greek Melkite Church in the United States said, because the "promise" was "abolished by the presence of Christ."
That sounds a bit like Replacement Theology, where the modern Church takes over the role of Israel in prophecy. Either that, or you have an amillennial approach that throws any future role for Israel out the window.
Or, it's just bad theology where Jew-bashing is the coin of the realm. A lot of folks on the left wing of the Church are pro-Arab to the point of being anti-Israel as Israel becomes seen as a colonial menace; that's going to be heightened by having Arab churchmen playing to the crowd back home.
I don't think that's Vatican doctrine. Both popes John Paul II and Benedict have been polite towards both Jews and Israel, so there will likely be some feather-unruffuling between Rome and Jerusalem.
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