Pope, Help Us Save the Jordan River
May 9th, 2009
(Thousands of Christian pilgrims get baptized in Israel’s Jordan River every year. Are they risking their life by immersing in the polluted waters?)
It’s the highlight of any Christian’s trip to Israel – a dunk in the Jordan River, the way Jesus did it thousands of years ago. But with increased pollution in Israel’s waterways, Israeli activists are using the Pope’s visit to Israel tomorrow to urge action on cleaning up the Jordan.
According to Christian belief, the Jordan River is the site of Jesus’s baptism; when pilgrims come to Israel (including my mother), they not only immerse themselves in the water, but take samples of it home for souvenirs.
But Zalul, Israel’s Zalul Environmental Association, says that the water is extremely polluted they said in an open letter to the pope on open letter to Pope.
“Water from the once-proud Jordan River is being diverted for domestic and agricultural use, leaving the lower part of the river a shrivelled stream with little to no fresh water and filled with sewage,” the letter said.
But those doing so now “risk their own health when entering the water.”
“Your Holiness, all of the Jordan River’s visitors should have the right to be baptised in water that is natural and true,” activists from Zalul urged.
On Sunday, the pope is to visit the Jordan baptismal site on the east side of the river.
::AFP [image via jocelyndursten]
This post was originally published on the environment website Green Prophet.
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I honestly think the Pope’s whole visit is a propoganda for himself. He has done nothing to help and promote Peace, he has created a wider gap between Muslims and Christians after his famous negative remark about Prophet Muhammad in 2006. And from Jordan he prasied the close relations between Christians and Jews as if Muslims do not exist. I always liked the late Pope John, he was a man pf Peace, Jesus would have gone to Gaza and broke the embargo! As for the polluted water, hmmm who is listening? Greenpeace might help
I think he just lacks the charisma that Pope John Paul had… he’s probably trying to deal with his own internal problems — holding onto a shrinking Catholic minority.