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The Vatican Seeks to Reclaim its Own –
“The Church with the Upper Room”
A Study in the Israeli-Vatican Diplomatic Relations that will Lead to the Prophetic Fulfillment of
“On that day, all Nations will seek to Surround Jerusalem”
By Robert D. Mock MD
January-February 2006
Part One
Zechariah 14:2-4 – “And I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem: the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the saints shall not be cut of from the city.
Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south.
Topics for Part One
The Jesuits and the Vatican Makes Its Bid to Take Possession of King David’s Tomb
The Hassidim, the Essenes and the House with the Upper Room
The Synagogue of the Hebrew Nazarenes
The Holy Roman Empire’s Legacy on the Mount of Zion
The German Influence in the Building of the Dormition Abbey
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor as the King of Cyprus and Jerusalem
The Knights of the Teutonic Order
The Jesuits and the Vatican Makes Its Bid to Take Possession of King David’s Tomb
On October 20 2005, the Vatican came a calling. As announced in the Israel National News in an article called, “Vatican: Parts of
David’s Tomb to Be Under Papal Control”, it stated:
President Moshe Katsav of Israel
Israel National News – “An official Vatican newspaper has reported that
during his upcoming visit to the Vatican, President Moshe Katsav will sign
an agreement giving parts of David’s Tomb over to papal control. If such an agreement is signed, it
will put an end to drawn out negotiations that began in 1998. Israeli
and Vatican representatives began discussing issues of jurisdiction over
certain sites around seven years ago. These sites include various buildings and parcels
of land that the Catholic Church claims it used to control.
The church is now seeking to reclaim its ownership of these sites. Among
the places under debate is an area that the church refers to as the site of
the “last supper,” which is situated at the burial site of Kings David,
Solomon, Rechavam, Assa, Chezekiyahu and Amatzia. The Vatican newspaper, El
Messagero, reports that President Katsav is expected to sign an agreement
during his visit that will give the church control over the upper part of
David’s Tomb. The church has already shown Israel a trial agreement,
according to which the Vatican will receive.”
Richard
Owen in Rome in “The Times on Line” continues to document this historic
move by the Vatican on October 13, 2005, in an article titled, “Vatican
offers swap deal to regain site of Last Supper.”
The Times on Line – “Vatican is hoping to regain control of the Room of the Last Supper in Jerusalem, one of the most sacred sites in Christianity. It will, in exchange, hand over to the Jewish community the historic synagogue at Toledo in Spain, at present a Catholic church. The proposals, contained in a draft agreement between the Israeli Government and the Vatican, come on the eve of a state visit to the Vatican next month by President Katsav. Final details on a long-delayed accord on the status of Roman Catholic properties in the Holy Land are expected to be agreed during the visit, marking a new era of reconciliation between Christians and Jews after centuries of hostility.”
In the finest of the modern Zionists traditions of swapping “Land” and “Holy Places” for reconciliation and peace, this agreement portents the beginning of the end for the long held desire by the Vatican to take hegemony over the holy shrines of not only Christianity but also the holy shrines of the Jewish people.
According to the traditions of the Christian Church, the House with the Upper Room is the place where the Last Supper was held and Jesus broke bread and drank wine with his disciples on the evening before His crucifixion. This site is also reputed to be the place where the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples at Pentecost.
In the painting by Leonardo di Vinci of the Last Supper, this scene has been imprinted in the Christian’s mind with an iconic imagery that has made this site the fourth most holy shrine in Christendom. The other three holy shrines include the: Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the site of the reputed tomb of Christ, the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, the reputed site where the archangel Gabriel announced to the “Virgin Mary” that she was to give birth to the coming messiah, and the third, the “Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem” when the birth of Jesus reputedly took place.
The present House with
the “Upper Room” with its Gothic-arched architecture is obviously not the
original room, but its imagery is firmly implanted in the Christian’s mind as
such.
Built by the Crusaders in the 14th century; the possession of this site was taken over by the Franciscans, who are the official guardians of the Christian sites in the Holy Land. The “title” to this site only lasted for less than three centuries when the Ottoman Turks in the 16th century took possession and transformed it into an Islamic mosque. This “title” of this site was then taken over by the Nation of Israel since its foundation and because beneath this site is the revered Tomb of King David. It has been the site of Jewish religious schools called yeshivas since that day.
This “reciprocal” agreement and trade between the Tomb of David and the “Upper Room” for the 12th century synagogue in Toledo, Spain. This synagogue was converted into the 15th century Church of Santa Maria La Blanca and has caused dissent and protests throughout Judaism. It is interesting that on the 40th anniversary of the Nostra Aetate, the Second Vatican Council, we now find the pathway of the Vatican’s intent when it formulated the Vatican document condemning anti-Semitism and laid the pavement in the diplomatic establishment of reciprocal relations between Israel and the Vatican in 1993. On the eve of the first synod of bishops that was being held in the Vatican with its bishops by the new Pope Benedict discussing the Eucharist and the Holy Communion, the Rome daily, II Messaggero stated that Rome was now coming to claim what it believes to be its own.
The Hassidim, the Essenes and the House with the Upper Room
It was not the Roman Christians dominion that the Cenacle or the Church in the Upper Room belonged. In fact this site was never a church in the day when worshippers came to celebrate “The Way” or the path of reconciliation between the Jews and the gentiles. It was in fact a synagogue in which the Nazarene followers of Jesus the Nazarene (Yahshua ha Nostri) led by Jesus’ brother, James the Just. They worshipped as fully authentic Torah observing Jews. This was also where the first meeting of the Nazarene Sanhedrin met to discuss with the newly commissioned “Apostle to the Gentiles,” how to implement the Noahide Laws of Judaism so that the message of the One God of Israel could spread throughout the whole earth.
It is only
a fact of history that Shaul was a Pharisee student in the Yeshiva
(School) of Hillel in which as a young rabbinic student was an attendant
of Rabban 
Gamaliel the Elder yeshiva. This “Shaul” would later
become the “Apostle Paul” upon whose mission as the “Apostle to the
Gentiles” was to put into action the real mission of Jesus the Messiah
(Yahshua haMaschiach)
It was here in this same synagogue, the Sanhedrin of the Hebrew Nazarenes of Jerusalem ( Jerusalem Church) made its official act (Act 19) to establish the Mission to the Gentiles. It is important to note that rabbinic Judaism has always recognized two different codes of religious conduct: the first are the 613 precepts in the Torah to the Jews to keep in their covenant relationship with Hashem, the God of Israel, at the mount called Sinai. The keeping of these precepts at Sinai would assure them a share in the World to Come. Yet there was a second code outside the covenant to the Jews in which that was more ancient. Under this code, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the Fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel were also promised a share in the World to Come. This was called the Noahide Laws.
It was the great Talmudist Rabbi Jacob Emden (1697-1776), who wrote a letter, now a classic, to the Polish rabbinate in the 17th century. In it he defended the thesis that Jesus of Nazareth never did attempt to abolish Judaism. It was his opinion that Jesus’ mission was to establish a religious pathway for the gentiles under the ancient Noahide Commandments transmitted to Moses at Sinai. Rabbi Jacob Emden was one of the leading eastern European authorities on the Torah and to many Jews he was compared to Maimonides in the breadth of his writings of all branches of Jewish knowledge but shared also Maimonides pragmatic and innovative approach to Judaism.
This was also the same Rabbi Emden, who became the great catalyst in the battle against the Sabbatean messianic heresy of the false messiah, Shabbatai Zevi, the 17th century mystic. This false messiah of Judaism hijacked the Jewish Kabbalah and twisted the Torah based Lurian Kabbalah into a religion that was anti-Torah, anti-Judaism and anti-God of Israel.
It was this same Jewish Kabbalah that was first put into writing whose origins were known to go back to the Kabbalah of the Essenes under Menahem the Essene who served as the vice-president (Sagan) of the Jewish Sanhedrin under the sage Hillel the Elder, the Nasi (president) of the Great Sanhedrin thirty years before the birth of Jesus.
In the days of Menahem and Hillel the Elder and their disciples called the Hassidim, the Romans conquered the Land of Israel and the Jewish people knew from their ancient prophecies in Daniel that this gentile enemy would someday destroy the temple in Jerusalem. It was the beliefs and teachings of the Bet Hillel that it was the correct approach to reach out to the gentile world. As the “light of the world”, the Jews were to teach the precepts of the God of Israel to the righteous gentiles who wanted to learn of the ways and teaching of the God of Creation. These ancient “BibleSearchers” or righteous gentiles according to the sages of Israel also deserved a place in the World to Come. It was also a prayer in the hearts of the Bet Hillel that this mission to the gentiles might avert the destruction of their land and the temple to their God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The gentiles who had the faith of their father Abraham, also in the time of the end deserved a right and a place in the kingdom of heaven that would be established by the Messiah (Maschiach of Yisra’el)
According to Rabbi Emden, Jesus and His disciples in their mission to the gentiles acted entirely within the halachah (Jewish Law) of Judaism. Their religion for the gentiles, which became the Christian religion, was based upon the Noahide Commandments which also were demonstrated in the New Testament gospels to recognize that the Torah law was eternally binding upon the Jews. These Noahide Commandments, accepted by the sages of Judaism, were implemented by James the Just in the Hebrew Nazarene Ecclesia, the Jerusalem Church. These commandments were seven in number:
- Prohibitions against idolatry – This law acknowledges that there is only one G-d who is Infinite, Supreme and Sovereign over the whole universe. This Supreme Being is not to be replaced with finite idols, either yourself, others or inanimate objects. The worship to this Supreme Being is in acts of prayer, study and meditation.
- Prohibition against Blasphemy – The law of blasphemy elevates the concept of God to respecting the Creator of the universe. In spite of our emotions or anger, we are not to treat the name of God lightly or vent our feelings by cursing our Creator and Maker.
- Prohibition against Killing – This law enhances the Respect to all human life. To the Jew, every human being is an entire world. To save the one life is to save that one entire world. To destroy a life is to destroy that one entire world. To help to enhance the lives of others is to put his commandment into his full dimensions of use.
- Prohibition against Sexual Sins – This law is a positive law that respects the Institution of Marriage as a Divine Act. The Oneness of the God and all of His Creation is demonstrated in living reality by the marriage of a man and a woman. To be Disloyal in your Marriage is an assault on that Oneness of God.
- Prohibition against Stealing – The Law against Stealing is premise upon which the future Messianic Kingdom of God will base its laws of governance, the Respect for the rights and property of others. The gentile believer in the God of Israel is to be honest in all your dealings in business. By relying on the God of the Jews rather than by our own personal selfish interests, we are expressing our Trust and Love for the One who is the Provider of all Life. .
- Prohibition against Eating the Limb of a Living Animal – The believer in the God of Israel will guard, protect and respect all of God’s creatures. In the Garden and the antediluvian age, Adam and his descendants were forbidden to consume meat. After the Flood of Noah, Man was permitted to eat meat but with a warning: Do not cause unnecessary suffering or cruelty to any creature.
- Imperative to Establish and Maintain Courts of Justice – The believer in the God of Israel will believe that Justice of the business of God, and we are to Maintain this Justice by laying down the necessary laws. With the enforcing of these laws by Righting the Wrongs of Society, we are in essence partners with the Divine in sustaining life and all creation.
The Synagogue of the Hebrew Nazarenes
It was the BibleSearcher’s article, “The Synagogue of the Hebrew Nazarene Ecclesia,” that has demonstrated that this so called “church” was actually a Jewish Nazarene Synagogue under the authority and direction of the Hebrew Nazarene Sanhedrin. Understanding the history of the “Jerusalem Church”, it was never their intent that the Christians were to be separated from the mother of their faith, Judaism and the Torah of God. As stated:
BibleSearchers – To the south-west of the present Temple Mount is another hill called today, Mount Zion. Near the crest of this hill is a cluster of ancient buildings, known as the Cenacle. Within this building, discovered in archeological digs, there was found a torah scroll niche. The strange thing about this niche is that it does not face the Temple Mount on the hill called Moriah. In the first century walls of this building, are the floors and foundations of a building that archeologist now suggest was the house with an ‘Upper Room’. It is this site that was known as home where the Last Supper was celebrated, the first place the disciples met Jesus after his resurrection and the house of prayer where the Holy Spirit descend upon the heads of the 120 disciples of Yahshua which ricocheted like a cannon around the world.
After the fall of Jerusalem, the Jewish presence was reestablished by the Jewish believers in the Jewish messiah called Yeshua (Jesus). They in turn returned to the site of the synagogue in the Upper Room and reestablished the Jewish presence at that site. The BibleSearcher article, “The Archeology Evidence for the Synagogue of the Nazarenes,” looks at this history and evidence. Concerning the return of the Jewish presence to the Upper Room and the Tomb of David afterwards was stated as follows:
BibleSearchers – “Rebuilding the small ‘Christian Church’ was about as close in time to Epiphanius as the early colonization of the New England states in the 1650-1700 era is to us today. Times have changed in America and so they did then in ancient Judea. In the pre and post 70 CE era of Jerusalem, there was no Christian Church in Jerusalem. The Jewish people returned to their devastated city and began to rebuild. The Nazarene Ecclesia was not Christian in the sense that we know today, but rather they were messianic Jews whose lives were devastated by the lost of the temple of the Lord as much as any other of their Jewish brethren’s lives were devastated. The culture of the Nazarenes was still fully Jewish and when they returned they again worshipped in synagogues and not churches. Their religious ideology and philosophy was based fully on their Hebrew-Judaic roots. It would be another 60 years after the Bar Kokhba Revolt in the 130’s CE in the era of Hadrian that any Christian presence would be seen in the city of Jerusalem.”
Today the Room of the Last Supper outside the confines of the Dormition Abbey and behind what is called the Franciscan house on Sion. Since the return of the Jewish presence to the eastern part of Jerusalem, the orthodox Jews have operated various yeshivas or schools of the Torah. This is specifically true due to their devotion for the Tomb of King David which is believed to be located beneath the Upper Room.
How and why this certain House with the Upper Room was associated with the Tomb of David was explored in the BibleSearchers article, “The Tomb of David and the Nazarene Synagogue (Cenacle).” Here in this home, was the residence or lodging house for the Essene guardians of the Tomb of David that was located in the Essene Quarter of Old Jerusalem at the time of Jesus. As an “anointed one” and also a double Davidian, this home in the custody of the followers of the Jewish messiah, Yahshua, held a special attachment. As stated:
BibleSearchers – “Beneath this lodging house was the tomb of David. This site was no doubt a holy place to the Essenes of Judea. The guardians of the Tomb of David were probably the upper hierarchy of the Essene Order. Here we might have met Nicodemus, a wealthy grain merchant and a chief elder of the Great Sanhedrin. Here we would have also met Joseph of Arimathea, the later who also was a ‘son of David’, a Roman Decurion and a tin merchant from Cornwall England, who also was one of the chief elders of the Great Sanhedrin in Jerusalem and a member of the Roman Provincial Council of Judea. It was Joseph of Arimathea, who was the brother of Eliakim, also known as Heli or Joachim, the father of Mary, the mother of Yahshua ben Yosef. It was Joseph of Arimathea, who is reputed to have also sat on the honorary hereditary ‘seat of David’ in the Sanhedrin, the seat in which Yahshua himself no doubt was destined to sit upon the death of Joseph.”
The site of the Tomb of David and the Synagogue of the Upper Room did not have any attachment to the Roman Christian Church to the days of Constantine the Great and all the construction done in the Holy Land in the 4th century CE. It would not be until the arrival of the Crusader kings of Christian Europe in the 11th century did the Roman Catholic Church place any attachment to this sacred edifice over the Tomb of David.
The first Catholic presence in this edifice was when the first Friary the Franciscans bought the “Upper Room” through the Kings of Naples in the 13th century. The Gothic structure over the Tomb of David is actually the remnant of Franciscan medieval Friary. This large room, supported by three pillared and divided into three naves, give up its clues to its architectural heritage. It was built by the Crusaders in the early 14th century just before they were evicted from the Holy Land by Saladin the Great. Beneath this Crusader room are the archeological remnants of the Jewish Nazarene synagogue.
When you
look over the landscape surrounding Mount Zion, you see the present walls of
the city of Jerusalem built by Suleiman the Magnificent in the mid-16th
century. According to tradition, he killed the architect and builder
when it was found 
out that the Tomb of David had
not been surrounded by the walls of Jerusalem. There the gate to the
city is called the Zion Gate. When you are exiting the city the Benedictine Basilica
of the Dormition is to the right in front of you. This medieval
structure called The Dormition Abbey is a massive structure that resembles a
mighty fortress, topped by a high, domed bell tower, a conical dome and corner
towers. Deep beneath the Benedictine Basilica in the crypts below is the
reputed tomb of the “Virgin Mary” where Christian tradition states that she
fell asleep for the last time. It was called the Dormitio of the Virgin
Mary.
The Crypt of the Virgin Mary reputed to be her last resting place
What is of interest is that it was not the Roman Catholic Church who officially completed the construction of the Benedictine Basilica. The Basilica complex was completed by the Germans when Kaiser Wilhelm II at the beginning of the 20th century used the architectural plans of Heinrich Renard who modeled the Benedictine Basilica after the Carolingian cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle.
Barry Chamish, a Jewish investigative reporter in the land of Israel, has been one of the most dedicated Vatican observers and reporters in the press. About a week after the headline news of the trade of the Tomb of David and the Upper Room with the Vatican hit the Israeli press in November 2005, one of the rabbis in the Diaspora Yeshiva called to tell him that the Tourism Minister was coming to visit their yeshiva. As Chamish reported in the article, “The Road from Rome.”
Barry Chamish - “He was trying to fill the study hall to prove to the government that their yeshiva was too valuable to be given away. I replied that I would not partake in such a spectacle. I might come if the students forcibly barred the Minister or any government official from entering the property. Hadn't he learned anything from Gush Katif? The government of Israel couldn't care less about him and could care even less how many students he can pack into a room. Mount Zion was a litmus test of how much opposition the government and its corrupted army could expect when all of the Old City was turned over to the Vatican. He said I must talk to the headmaster of the Yeshiva, Rabbi Goldstein.
An hour later, I was honored by a call from Rabbi Goldstein. Soon, however, I was in despair. As far as he knew, the Vatican wanted to turn his school into a money making tourist site and the Ministry of Tourism was being enticed by the prospects of millions of Catholic tourists visiting Israel to see the Last Supper room. I did my best to wake the Rabbi. I told him that tourism was the facade, not the issue. I tried to explain the global forces using their muscle to get the Jews out of Jerusalem's holy sites. I noted that the government of Israel was the worst enemy of Judaism and that he must block the entrance of their representative with whatever force he could muster. However, as with the Rabbis of Gush Katif, my words were wasted. Mount Zion will give up without a real fight. You watch.”
The German Holy Roman Empire’s Legacy on the Mount of Zion
Barry Chamish recently wrote an article on the German
history relating to the building of the Dormition Abbey. In an interview
with the German born historian, Dr. Asher Edar, reported in the article
titled, “On Top of Mount
Zion, all Coveted by Rome,” Chamish divulges the following historical
insights concerning the Tomb of David.
The Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion
The roots of the desire of the Vatican to regain the “House with the Upper Room” go back 1200 years to the time of Charles the Great, better known as Charlemagne. Creating the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, this brilliant imperial and military leader who began the Carolingian Empire around 800 CE was used craftily by Pope Leo III, after he crowned him the Emperor of Europe, as a tool for converting Europe to Roman Catholicism.
In the capital of Charlemagne’s empire, Aachen, he built his first cathedral. Here lies the ties of the Dormition Abbey with the Aachen Cathedral called the Aix-la-Chapelle. This Dormition Abbey, next to the Jewish yeshiva, was built in 1906 by the German Kaiser Wilhelm II to be an exact duplicate of Charlemagne’s Aachen Cathedral.
In 1898, Kaiser Wilhelm II came to Jerusalem with the goal to build two churches, a “modest Lutheran Church of minor religious significance” and the magnificent Catholic Abbey on the hill called Mount Zion. Travel was difficult in those days to a village called Jerusalem, a backwater and insignificant town in the desolate land of Roman Palestine. The building of this cathedral must have been of utmost significance. The Anglican British were in control of the land of Palestine and was feared that they had an operating church, but there was no Catholic presence in Palestine.
The money
for the expedition to Palestine by the Kaiser was fronted by the Vatican. A large sum of money was also sent to bribe Khamid, the Turkish 
Sultan. Whereas German was a Lutheran
nation, a consolation church was built, but ‘the real prize was Mount Zion.” The question still begs an answer? How did a Kaiser, leader of a
country whose national church was Lutheran? Power and Control! Kaiser’s
dream was to revive the Holy Roman Empire, yet to revive an ancient legacy;
the Roman Catholic Church must be a partner. Not a partner, but the
real leader.
Aichen (German) Cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle (French)
As in the days of Charlemagne in 800 CE, the Pope was the spiritual leader and the power behind the throne. The political leader was the emperor of Germany. At the apex of the Holy Roman Empire, Frederick the Great marched into Jerusalem and crowned himself king of Jerusalem. These were heady days at the height of the European Crusades. Yet, it was never forgotten that dream of Jerusalem was always at the behest of the Pope. This dream took this planet “straight to World War I.”
Is there a Jewish connection? No! To the Roman Church and to the European kings of the former Roman Empire, the days of the Jews were over. The kingdom of God was here and now. The pathway to the millennial kingdom was under the banner of the Pontiff of Rome.
When Herzl
was crossing the globe to find a sponsor to find a home for the Jews, he first
went to visit with Kaiser Wilhelm II. He was rebuffed. The Kaiser was
heading to Jerusalem and Palestine to “save Jerusalem for a Christendom
led politically by Germany and spiritually by Rome. Nothing has changed except now the pope is a
determined German. The Vatican wants the Jews out of the Old City and apparently our (Israeli) government is agreeing with them.”
The German Influence in the Building of the Dormition Abbey
Barry Chamish recently wrote an article on the German history relating to the building of the Dormition Abbey. In an interview with the German born historian, Dr. Asher Edar, reported in the article titled, “On Top of Mount Zion, all Coveted by Rome,” Chamish divulges the following historical insights concerning the Tomb of David.
The roots of the desire of the Vatican to regain the “House with the Upper Room” go back 1200 years to the time of Charles the Great, better known as Charlemagne. Creating the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, this brilliant imperial and military leader who began the Carolingian Empire around 800 CE was used brilliantly by Pope Leo III, after he crowned him the Emperor of Europe, as a tool for converting Europe to Roman Catholicism.
In the capital of Charlemagne’s empire, Aachen, he built his first cathedral. Here lies the ties of the Dormition Abbey with the Aachen Cathedral called the Aix-la-Chapelle. This Dormition Abbey, next to the Jewish yeshiva, was built in 1906 by the German Kaiser Wilhelm II to be an exact duplicate of Charlemagne’s Aachen Cathedral.
In 1898, Kaiser Wilhelm II came to Jerusalem with the goal to build two churches, a “modest Lutheran Church of minor religious significance” and the magnificent Catholic Abbey on the hill called Mount Zion. Travel was difficult in those days to a village called Jerusalem, a backwater and insignificant town in the desolate land of Roman Palestine. The building of this cathedral must have been of utmost significance. The Anglican British were in control of the land of Palestine and was feared that they had an operating church, but there was no Catholic presence in Palestine.
The money for the expedition to Palestine by the Kaiser was fronted by the Vatican. A large sum of money was also sent to bribe Khamid, the Turkish Sultan. Whereas German was a Lutheran nation, a consolation church was built, but ‘the real prize was Mount Zion.” The question still begs an answer? How did a Kaiser, leader of a country whose national church was Lutheran, end up in Jerusalem at the request of the Pope? Power, Greed and Control! Kaiser’s dream was to revive the Holy Roman Empire, yet to revive an ancient legacy; the Roman Catholic Church must be a partner. Not a partner, but the real leader.
As in the days of Charlemagne in 800 CE, the Pope was the spiritual leader and the power behind the throne. The political leader was the emperor of Germany. At the apex of the Holy Roman Empire, Frederick the Great marched into Jerusalem and crowned himself king of Jerusalem. These were heady days at the height of the European Crusades. Yet, it was never forgotten that dream of Jerusalem was always at the behest of the Pope. This dream later took this planet “straight to World War I.”
Is there a Jewish connection? No! To the Roman Church and to the European kings of the former Roman Empire, the days of the Jews were over. The kingdom of God was here and now. The pathway to the millennial kingdom was under the banner of the Pontiff of Rome.
When Herzl
was crossing the globe to find a sponsor to find a home for the Jews, he first
went to visit with Kaiser Wilhelm II. He was rebuffed. The Kaiser was
heading to Jerusalem and Palestine to “save Jerusalem for a Christendom led
politically by Germany and spiritually by Rome. Nothing has changed except now the “pope is a
determined German.” The “Vatican wants the Jews out of the Old City and apparently our (Israeli) government is agreeing with them.” And so closed the
short history given by German historian Asher Edar.
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor as the King of Cyprus and Jerusalem
Our
interest and focus into the life King Frederick II is predominately
centered on Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Officially he was known as the
Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (1220-1250) of the Royal House of Hohenstaufen,
King of Sicily (1198-1250), King of Cyprus and Jerusalem, Pretender
to the King of the Romans from 1215, and King of Germany. Born on
December 26, 1194 to the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI and Constance the Queen of
Sicily, he died on December 13, 1250 and his body remains are in
the Cathedral of Palermo. A Catholic
by birth, he was though frequently at war with the Papal States, excommunicated
twice and once called the Anti-Christ by Pope Gregory IX.
Frederick II Hohenstaufen the Great, the Charlemagne Shrine in the Aachen Cathedral
A rocky road with Rome is the best description of Frederick II mainly because his reign and life shone so much brighter than the papal fathers. Speaker of nine languages, literate in seven, a patron of science and all the early era of the enlightenment, an advance student of economics and known in his own time as the Stupor mundi (“wonder of the world”).
The imperial power of Charlemagne reached its apex as the Holy Roman Empire, in essence the First Reich of Germany. This would continue as the Roman Empire in Europe, the Germanic branch of the Celtic tribe. This included the lands of: Germany, Austria, Eslovenia, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Belgium, Czech Republic, eastern France, Northern Italy and western Poland.
The Holy Roman Empire of Germany went from the 800 CE to August 6, 1806 when the Francis II, last ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, known as Francis von Habsburg or Franz I of Austria abdicated and the Empire was disbanded. The revived Second Reich came in 1871 by the German family of the Hohenzollern. A thousand years of reign, the First Reich never had a more brilliant ruler and leader, except his forefather Charlemagne, than King Frederick II. Many of his faithful followers felt he would rise again at a second coming and rule a 1000 years in a future Reich on earth.
In 1225, Frederick II married Yolande of Jerusalem with the blessing of Pope Honorius III. It was the goal of the pope connect the powerful presence of Emperor Frederick II to the Sixth Crusade. Yolanda was the daughter of John of Brienne, the King of Jerusalem (1148-1237) and Maria of Montferrat, who was the daughter of Conrad of Montferrat and heiress on the death of Amalric II to the throne of the kingdom of Jerusalem. The regency of the throne of Jerusalem passed from John of Brienne upon the demand of Frederick II to serve also a regent for their son, Conrad IV of Germany when Yolande of Jerusalem, his wife died.
Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II Barbossa
John Brienne was over seventy years old and now the Jerusalem "king in exile." His presence was still a threat to Frederick and during the emperor's absence on the Sixth Crusade (1228-1229); John Brienne was vigorous enough to revenge loosing his title as King of Jerusalem to Frederick II by commanding the papal troops to attack southern Italy.
Strangely enough, such a remarkable figure as Frederick II was, he was not the iconic figure of a spiritual leader. Predominately a religious sceptic, he denounced Moses, Jesus and Muhammad as frauds and delighted to utter blasphemies, mocking the sacraments of the Catholic Christian faith. As such, his shocking and scandalous behavior earned him his disfavor with the Roman pontiffs and even the Muslims disliked the “Christian” who was not a Christian.
With the blessings of Pope Gregory IX and now defacto
king of Jerusalem by his marriage to Yolande of Jerusalem, heiress
to the kingdom of Jerusalem, King
Frederick II was excommunicated by Gregory IX in 1227 because of the
delays in the crusades. This came in part, his kingdom was in the midst
of an epidemic.
The crusade finally did begin in 1228, now by an excommunicated king which further rubbed the pontiff in Rome by its provocation for the Catholic Church was not receiving the honor of the crusade. As such Frederick II received a second excommunication. Powerful players do not like to share power.
The 13th century Coronation Glove of Frederick II
The road to Jerusalem did not come by the force of arms but by the negotiated restitution of the city of Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem to King Frederick II by Sultan Al-Kamil, the Ayyubid ruler of the region. There were reasons for this negotiation. The Sultan was nervous about a possible war with his Syrian and Mesopotamian enemies and did not need any troubles with the Christians. The crusade ended in a truce with the Pope and Frederick received his coronation as the King of Jerusalem on March 18, 1229.
He was technically not
the king but regent to the throne of Jerusalem for his infant son Conrad IV the
rightful heir to the kingdom, as Yolande of Jerusalem had died. Frederick II
was now married to his third wife, Isabella of England. The King of Jerusalem was to be short lived as part of the barons under the leadership of John of 
Ibelin, Lord of Beirut rebelled.
By 1230, the viceroy left in Jerusalem by Frederick’s absence was
forced to leave Acre, the capital. It was razed to the ground by Sultan
Malik al-Muattam. By 1244, Jerusalem was now gone from the influence of
the Papal power until today.
Castel de Monte of Frederick II
An interesting part of the legacy of Frederick II is his falcon hunting residence, the Castel de Monte, built between 1229 and 1249, after the Sixth Crusade. Located on a hill, it stands over a Benedictine monastery with a church that was dedicated to St. Mary of the Mount. As the falcon hunting only highlights Frederick’s fascination with the life and culture of the Saracens, the coronation robe of Frederick II was also as unusual. Prior to his coronation by the Pope, he bought a new red coronation robe which had a strange Arabic inscription on the edge. The robe was dated to the year 528 according to the Islamic calendar which would be 1150 CE or 528 years after the Hijrah, the date that Mohammed emigrated to Medina in 622 CE.
Around this date was an Arab Benedection: “May the Emperor be received well, may he enjoy vast prosperity, great generosity and high splendor, fame and magnificent endowments, and the fulfillment of his wishes and hopes. May his days and nights go in pleasure without end or change." Today this coronation robe is in the Schatzkammer of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
In spite of the loss of Jerusalem and the Holy Land, Frederick’s bloodless victory in gaining again Jerusalem for the “cross of Christ” but really for the papal power, made him a hero in Europe. To claim whatever rights they had to the Sixth Crusade, the excommunications were rescinded by the pope in what was known as the Peace of San Germano. The power battles with the Papal States and the Lombardi league continued throughout the life of Frederick the Great when Gregory IV’s successor to the papacy, Innocent IV which earned Frederick his third and fourth excommunications in 1239 and 1245.
In spite of his
tumultuous life, Frederick II died “peacefully” in the habit of a Cistercian
monk on December 13, 1250. His throne passed to his son, Conrad IV only to
lose it upon his death four years later and the Hofenstaufen dynasty fell from
power. According to the legends of the Holy Roman Empire, King Frederick II
did not truly die but merely sleeps in the “Kyffhaeuser
Mountains and will one
day awake to reestablish his empire. Over time, this legend largely transferred
itself to his grandfather, Frederick I, also known as Frederick Barbarossa or “Redbeard.” A bust
of Frederick sits today in the 
Walhalla
temple built by Ludwig I of Bavaria.
Singular amongst all the monarchs of the Middle Ages, Frederick II holds no competition. Known because of his lifelong interest in Islam as the “Hammer of Christianity,” he is rather seen by many medievalists more in the sense of a Byzantine emperor, more like “God’s Viceroy on earth.” More accepted is what is known as the Hohenstaufen Kaiseridee: the ideology that claims that the legitimate successor to the Roman emperors was the Holy Roman Empire.
The Knights of the Teutonic Order
The legacy of Frederick II lives not in his descendants but by the Golden Bull of Rimini of which he confirmed the legitimacy of rulership of the Teutonic Knights under their headmaster Hermann von Salza over the Prussian lands east of the Vistula, the Chelmno Land.
The Teutonic Order survived the collapse of the Habsburg Empire, the last remnant of the Holy Roman Empire and the First Reich of Germany by abandoning its "chivalric" character, retaining only its religious identity. Known today as the Teutonic Order of Holy Mary in Jerusalem, we find the link between Frederick the Great, the Aachen Cathedral and the Tomb of Mary found in the crypts of the Domition Abbey. This Abbey was built as a replica of Charlemagne’s revered cathedral known in French as the Aix-la-Chapelle.
The last of the Habsburg Teutonic Order ceased when the last Habsburg Grand Master resigned after the First World War. The admission of knights ceased with no survivors and the rest of the Order reside only as an Order of the Vatican predominately in Austria, Germany, northern Italy and Yugoslavia. Those within the order are decorated with the Knights Cross or the Marian Cross. Though sometimes called the “Teutonic Knights,” there are in reality only twelve “Knights of Honor” who are specifically distinguished when awarded the Knight’s Cross by the “Rochester.” Today the Teutonic Order of Netherlands still exists and maintains its traditional chivalric character of their ancient order.
Founded between 1120 and 1128, the Teutonic Order opened a hospital for German pilgrims and crusaders between 1120 and 1128 but destroyed during the fall of Jerusalem in 1187. With the large German participation in the Third Crusade, a new hospital was built in Acre near the Saint Nicholas gate.
On November 19, 1190, the German leader, Duke Frederick of Sabina confirmed the new institutions with the capture of the coastal city of Acre. They were then confirmed by Pope Clement III on February 6, 1191 and soon reached the distinguished stature of the other orders; the Hospitallers and the Templars. The Imperial grant came from the Holy Roman Empire with Otto IV by his protection on May 10, 1213 and soon after by Frederick the Great’s confirmation of protection on September 5, 1214.
About forty knights were confirmed into the Teutonic Order by the King of Jerusalem and Frederick of Swabia. Their first Grand Master was selected in the name of both the Pope and the Emperor. The unique character of the Teutonic Order was that all confirmed knights had to be of German birth. Drawn from predominately the nobility or the knightly class, they were given a blue mantle charged with a black cross that was worn over a white tunic, very much like the Golden Robe of the High Priest of Israel.
Located on a precipitous crest overlooking the
Kziv river, the Teutonic Knights soon owned the Montfort
Crusader Castle built by
the Templars in the 12th century and soon after
destroyed by Saladin the Great who defeated the Crusaders at the Horns of
Hittim on July 3-4, 1187. Restored in 
1220, Montfort was sold to the Knights of the Teutonic Order.
There they built their seat, enlarged the castle and with the head of
the Teutonic Order Herman Con Selze, gave it the name “Stakenberg”
meaning “strong mountain.” This castle as mentioned in the contract
signed in Jaffa between Frederick II and the Islamic Sultan Almalik
Alkamil on February 18, 1229. The Castle of Montfort that was later lost in 1271 yet the Teutonic Order went on to become a formidable
power not in the Holy Land but across Europe.
It was the Master Heinrich von Walpot, who was the leader of the knights in their first decade as they moved from the Rhineland in Germany. Walpot died about 1200. He drew up the statues for the order and on 1199 they were confirmed by Innocent III in the Bull Sacrosancta romana of February 19, 1199.
These statutes divided the knights into two classes; knights and priests. The knights would be obliged to take the triple monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience as well as giving aid to the poor and sick and above all else to fight the Infidel. Whereas the knights, who from the 13th century had to prove that they were from “ancient nobility”, the priests had separate obligations: to celebrate the Mass and other religious offices, to administer the sacraments to the knights and the sick in their hospitals and follow them as almoners (poor pilgrims collected alms) into war.
The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem
The first historical origin of “The Equestrian Order
of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem” came in Jerusalem in 1099
when Godefroy, Duke of Bouillon, first Christian King of Jerusalem
founded the order after the liberation of Jerusalem. What they did we do not
know. Were they some kind of an “honor guard” for the Holy Sepulcher, we
have no evidence. There is no evidence that they were a military order. Some
sort of a religious Order of Canons of the Holy Sepulcher under the Rule
of Saint Augustine was founded and soon this Order along with the Hospitallers,
the Templar Knights, and the Teutonic Knights were established across Europe assuming great wealth.
In a letter from Pope Adrian IV to Raymond the Count of Barcelona, he identified the Holy Sepulcher brothers along with the Hospitallers and the Templars, two military orders in the Holy Land. Throughout the centuries, the pilgrims that visited the Tomb of the Holy Sepulcher were knighted as a part of this equestrian order. The principle foundation of the Order as an Order of Chivalry of the Holy Roman Church is of more recent date.
In July 23, 1847, Pope Pius IX put the Guardian of
the Holy Places under the authority of the newly re-established Latin
Patriarchate of Jerusalem. At that time they were allowed to make knights
to the Patriarch. According to article VIII, "all the regulations
concerning the knights of the 
Holy Sepulcher and established earlier remain
valid. It is decreed that the conferral of this Order pertains to the
Patriarch ... who may use this power in favor of those people distinguished
by the integrity of their life, who have rendered remarkable services to the
church and demonstrate all the other conditions required for this honor.....
the sums given by the knights as dues must be employed to assist the needs
of the Holy Land."
The Grand Cordon bestowed upon the Knights of the Collar of the Holy Sepulcher
Twenty-one years later, on January 24, 1868, in the Brief Cum multa supienter Pope Pius IX placed this Order directly under the Papal control and the Patriarch as "Administrator" and "Rector" acting in the name of the Holy See. On August 3, 1888, in the Brief Venerabilis frater, Pope Leo XIII also allowed the “cross” to be bestowed upon three classes of ladies. On March 14, 1906, the Order of the Holy Sepulcher was included as the fifth Papal Order after Pope Sylvester. The Pope with the Cardinal Grand Chancellor of Equestrian Orders (now Secretary of State) held the supreme authority and the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem became the Grand Master with rights to award the Order.
This mobile and expanding hierarchy continued to modify and
reform itself for on May 3, 1907, in the brief Quam multa, Pope Pius X took the title of Sovereign
Head and Grand Master of the Sacred Military Order by himself,
appointing the Patriarch pro 
tempore Lieutenant of the Grand
Magistery with
rights to nominate knights to the Order. At the same time, King Alfonso XIII of Spain was appointed Grand
Bailiff and Protector of the Order in Spain.
Grand Master His Eminence Carlo Cardinal Furno
The initiation ranks or grades of the Grand Cross, Commander and Knight were instituted in 1868. The Grand Cordon which came in the form of a “Collar” was bestowed to the heads and members of several Royal Houses including: German Emperor William II, the Archdukes Eugene (himself Grand Master of the Teutonic Order) and Josef-August of Austria, King Leopold II and the future King Albert of the Belgians, Ferdinand Pius Duke of Calabria and his wife, the King of Portugal and the Emperor of Ethiopia.
In an Apostolic Letter dated January 6, 1928, the title
of Grand Master was relinquished by the Pope and the Latin Patriarch
became "Perpetual Chief and Administrator." The Order was now not a Papal
Order but an Order under Papal protection.
Pope John Paul II in Jerusalem in March 2000 backed by the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher
On August 5, 1931, the title “Equestrian" replaced the title "Sacred Military" that was used by the Constantinian Order by the Order of Malta. The Latin Patriarch now assumed his old titles as Rector and Administrator with four classes: Grand Cross, Commander with star or Grand Officer, Commander and Knight (or Dame). This Order could not be recognized by governments, as an Order under a foreign head of State. On July 16, 1940, Cardinal Nicola Canali was appointed Protector of the Order, and assumed the title of Grand Master, given only to a Cardinal nominated by the Pope. The Patriarch became again the Grand Prior.
Today the Government of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem is as follows:
Grand Master is His Eminence Carlo Cardinal Furno, appointed by Pope John Paul II in 1995.
Grand Prior is His Eminence the Most Rev. Michel Sabbah, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem,
Lieutenant General is His Excellency Prince Paolo Massimo Lancellotti, Knight of the Collar,
Governor-General (lay Head of the Order) is presently Ambassador of Italy Count Ludovico Carducci Artenisio,
Vice-Governor-Generals are Peter Wolff-Metternich, Knight of the Collar,
Russell Kendall, Knight of the Collar,
Assessor is Monsignor Luigi del Gallo di Roccagiovine.
Where ever the pathways go from Rome to reclaim its “lost dominions” in Jerusalem, it will include these power players of this Equestrian Order and the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher who follow in its geo-political moves.
Go to Part Two - The Pathway and the Players in the Bid to Control Jerusalem
The Vatican Seeks to Reclaim its Own
Go to Part One – The Church with the Upper Room
The Jesuits and the Vatican Makes Its Bid to Take Possession of King David’s Tomb
The Cenacle or the Upper Room
The Hassidim, the Essenes and the House with the Upper Room
Noahide Laws of God
The Synagogue of the Hebrew Nazarenes
The Holy Roman Empire’s Legacy on the Mount of Zion
The German Influence in the Building of the Dormition Abbey
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor as the King of Cyprus and Jerusalem
The Knights of the Teutonic Order
Go to Part Two - The Pathway and the Players in the Bid to Control Jerusalem
Israeli President Moshe Katsav meets Pope Benedict XVI on November 17, 2005
The Pathway of the Vatican to Obtain Hegemony over the Holy Sites in Jerusalem
A Chronology of the Attempts by the Vatican to Displace Israel from the Old City Of Jerusalem
The Secret Negotiations between the Vatican, Israel and the Palestinians
Franciscan Father David-Marie A. Jaeger, Legal Papal Envoy
The Bethlehem Debacle in the Jewish-Vatican Relationship
Latin Rite Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michele Sabbah
The Hebrew Jewish Bishop Jean-Baptiste Gourion
Go to Part Three – “The Vatican Wants Jerusalem”
The Battle of Control between the Jewish Christian Catholics and the Arab Christian Catholics
Rome’s Model for the Control of Jerusalem
Vatican and Israel Agree to Normalize and Establish Diplomatic Relations – 1993
Fundamental Agreement between the Holy See and the State of Israel – December 30, 1993
Vatican and Israel Establish the Vatican’s Legal Status in Israel - 1997
Jewish Rabbi David Rosen – Papal Knight Commander of the Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great
The Vatican wants Jerusalem - Pressure On for the Internationalization of Jerusalem
Links to the Vatican and Mount Zion
Documents Relating to the Mt. Zion Situation – November 17, 2005
By the Committee to Save Mount Zion by the International Society for Sephardic Progress
November 1, 2005 - Strongly written letter to the Rabbi of Diaspora Yeshiva on Mt. Zion from David Bartheldy in Haifa. This letter is dated October 28, 2005. OPEN
November 2, 2005 - Draft of the Proposed Deal Between President Katsav of Israel and the Vatican. OPEN
November 8, 2005 - Letters Sent to the Diaspora Yeshiva OPEN
November 10, 2005 - Two letters sent to us from Councilwoman Mina Fenton of the Municipality of Jerusalem:
Letter 1 GIF or MS DOC - From David Bartholdi (sp?) to Director General of the Tourism Ministry introducing his Celestial Psalms Track initiative to turn the King David's Tomb building into a tourist project while claiming that Rabbi SZ Kahana's management was abysmal and scandalous, having broken the laws to take control of the site. Kahana was the founder of the religious school on Mt. Zion.
Letter 2 GIF or MS DOC - Letter from Eliyahu Lipschitz of the Tourism Ministry's legal office to Advocate Shlomo Avni, noting that the Bartholdi Project could be considered without tender but has to be proven financially sound first.
November 13, 2005 - LINK to Article 10 of Fundamental Agreement Between the Holy See and the State of Israel (December 30, 1993)
November 15, 2005 - This letter is to David Bartholdi from Reshut Ha Teva endorsing their development of the area. It shows that the developers are trying to garner as many "pro" letters for their project as possible in order to convince the state authorities to alter the zoning, etc. (open)
November 15, 2005 - This documents show that the Mt. Zion based Diaspora Yeshiva has applied to Tabu to develop the area and has received a very positive reply. (open)
November 15, 2005 - Correspondence Between The London Times and Ellen Horowitz of the Committee to Save Mt. Zion (open):
This demonstrates there was a swap deal on the agenda, that there was a Draft Agreement between the State of Israel and the Vatican, that the story originated from within the Vatican, and that is was disseminated via legitimate media sources. AND that the Vatican has been, is, and will continue to be very intent on getting the room which houses the Diaspora Yeshiva and the traditional Tomb of King David.
November 16, 2005 - The Status of Mt. Zion from the Rabbis of Mt. Zion. An official statement issued by the rabbis of Mt. Zion, Jerusalem for the Committee to Save Mt. Zion. (open)
November 17, 2005 - Shas MK Yitzhak Cohen asked on Nov. 16 a parliamentary
question regarding the truthfulness of media reports that Mt. Zion will be given over to the Church. Minister Meir Sheetrit replied: "After
investigation with the Holy Sites Administrator, it is clear that there is no
such intention. [Note: only the transfer ownership of David's Tomb, since only
the Tomb is mentioned, there is still room for doubt.] ". A 
second question regarding Hebron's Cave of the Patriarch is asked. http://www.knesset.gov.il/plenum/data/103145105.doc
(archived here)
Mt. Zion and the Vatican In The News
Archives by Barry Chamish
Katsav meets Pope Benedict XVI Jerusalem Post November 17, 2005
Israel to hand control of Jerusalem holy site to Vatican Haaretz November 6, 2005 HEBREW ARTICLE
Article on the Vatican and Mt. Zion Maariv Newspaper November 6, 2005 HEBREW ARTICLE
Follow the Papal Paper Trail Israel National News November 9, 2005 by Ellen W. Horowitz
"Katsav Won't Ink David's Tomb Deal Next Week" Jerusalem Post November 10, 2005
Letters to the editor, Jerusalem Post November 13, 2005
An exchange that makes sense Jerusalem Post November 13, 2005
Don't do it, President Katsav Jerusalem Post November 13, 2005
Jerusalem Old City Rabbis Declare Campaign To Protect Mt. Zion from Church Takeover. Hatzofe November 15, 2005
Jewish Activities Planned for Mt. Zion Israel National News November 15, 2005 IMPORTANT ARTICLE
Israeli Political Comic Strip Dry Bones - November 15, 2005
Vatican Seeks Pieces of Jerusalem The Trumpet November 16, 2005
Vatican presses visiting Israeli leader on pact Catholic News September 17, 2004 IMPORTANT ARTICLE
Poraz supports Vatican request for control over David's Tomb Israel National News - September 26, 2004 IMPORTANT ARTICLE
The Vatican and its Friends Israel National News 24 February 05 & April 4, 2005 Israel Insider Magazine
Spain: Selling Culture to Jews or Selling Out Jewish Culture July 20, 2005
President Katzav to Visit Vatican Israel National News October 2, 2005
Vatican offers swap deal to regain site of Last Supper London Times October 13, 2005
Vatican in deal with Israel to look after Last Supper room The Australian October 14, 2005 IMPORTANT ARTICLE
Vatican in deal with Israel to look after Last Supper room Catholic News October 14, 2005
Vatican to trade Toledo synagogue for 'Last Supper' room in Jerusalem? World Jewish Congress October 14, 2005
ISRAEL TO CEDE CONTROL OVER SITE OF LAST SUPPER? EWTN Global Catholic Network October 20, 2005
Vatican: Parts of David’s Tomb to Be Under Papal Control [HEBREW] Israel National News October 20, 2005
Vatican: Parts of David’s Tomb to Be Under Papal Control Israel National News October 20, 2005
Paper: Israel, Vatican close to deal October 21, 2005 JTA
Vatican't Israel National News October 23, 2005 by Ellen W. Horowitz
Letter Submitted to the Editor Jerusalem Post October 27, 2005 by Yaffa Ganz
Israel's President Moshe Katsav meets Pope Benedict XVI. Last Supper on agenda Oct. 30, 2005
"Katsav, papal official deny 'site swap'" Jerusalem Post November 2, 2005
Mt. Zion Handover: President Denies, Reports Persist Israel National News November 3, 2005
Vatican Asks for Israel to Return Site of Last Supper AGI November 4, 2005 IMPORTANT ARTICLE
Can This Be Real? Israel National News November 4, 2005 Batya Medad
Report: Israel to hand control of Jerusalem holy site to Vatican Haaretz November 6, 2005
Israeli Concessions Stand Israel National News opinion by Michele Nevada November 7, 2005
Katsav meets Pope Benedict XVI Jerusalem Post November 17, 2005
Archives on the Vatican and the Zion Shrine at King David’s Tomb
Pope and King Seek Care of Zion Shrine NY Times July l 9, 1920 (PDF)
Catholics to Buy Site from Moslems; Negotiations Proceeding for the Cenacle NY Times July 8, 1930 (PDF)
Deny Purchase of Mount Zion Site NY Times July 9, 1930 (PDF) INTERESTING
Christians Enter King David's Tomb NY Times July 5, 1948 (PDF)
Vatican Accuses Israel NY Times July 8, 1949
Passover - Gates of Tomb of King David on Mount Zion Are Opened NY Times April 10, 1952 (PDF)
Jews Make Pilgrimage NY Times April 14, 1952 (PDF)
Israel Agrees to Internationalize Mt. Zion NY Times July 11, 1953 (PDF) IMPORTANT ARTICLE
Pope Visits Mt. Zion in 1964 NY Times January 6, 1964 (Large PDF)
Group Seeking $1-Million for 6 1/2 Acre Project NY Times January 6, 1964 (PDF) Teddy Kollek
Reports Mt. Zion Has Important Artifacts
Israeli-Vatican Difference Over Jerusalem Widened NY Times July 25, 1971(PDF)
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