August 15, 2001

Fr. Louis saying Mass.

This morning was Abuna Louis Hazboun's last Mass as the Roman Catholic priest in Zababdeh. After six years here (which seems to be the standard tour of duty for priests in the Latin Patriarchate), he has been moved to Jaffa-Nazareth, within Israel proper. Many people came to wish him well. It was also the first Mass for Abuna Aktham Hijaziin who has spent the last three years in 'Aboud, a village near in Ramallah. People also had the chance to welcome him to Zababdeh. He comes originally from Jordan, as do many of the priests in the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The Patriarchate covers Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Cyprus. It was a nice farewell, complete with Jenin's priest and nuns.

After lunch together (and helping Abuna Louis finish up the last minute packing duties), we took off in a caravan of four cars for the Israeli border. The sisters from Jenin went first in their white habits and Italian passports, then the two Americans, then Abuna Louis with one of the sisters from Zababdeh, and finally Abuna Aktham with another one of the sisters. When we arrived outside of Zababdeh where Palestinian control ends and approached the Israeli military camp, we could see that barbed wire had been scrolled across the road. Abuna Louis and Marthame walked up to see if there were soldiers we could talk to and pass. When none appeared, Marthame and Abuna Louis moved the barbed wire wide enough for cars to pass through and headed off. When we got to the border, the Italian sisters paved the way such that the soldier bid each of us "ciao" with a wave of the hand when we passed. They didn't check our IDs, which was a concern: Abuna Louis is a Palestinian and they are not usually letting Palestinians through the border these days. He, like all the priests, has a Vatican passport, but that is often of no use. But we passed totally without incident, which was a relief.

We stayed a while as Abuna Louis got settled, but then headed back down to Jerusalem to turn in our car rental. We heard that the last two days provided a great deal of chaos at the Surda checkpoint (between Ramallah and Birzeit), and so we decided not to risk going home to Birzeit in the dark and instead laid low with friends in Ramallah for the night. On our way to their place we rode past the police station which had been demolished a week ago in response to the suicide bombing in Jerusalem. There's only so many destroyed buildings one can look at.