Speaking of miracles

Human Life Review, Summer 2001 by Merle, Sandi

It is not a simple matter to just walk into Israel, plant a tree, and go home. I've lived long enough to understand that, and I also understand that Israelis are just as cautious about who leaves their country as they are about who enters it (terrorists can come and go). That Israelis are "paranoid" doesn't mean they're wrong-So, with that in mind, journey with me to my favorite place on earth, a tiny nation steeped in controversy and chaos.

My travel companions are two cherished friends, Father James Loughran, Director of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the Archdiocese of New York, and Mary O'Connor Ward, "baby sister" of John Cardinal O'Connor, the late archbishop of New York. We had thankfully accepted all offers from our "friends in high places" for any and all special accommodations to facilitate entrance to and exit from Israel.

This trip had been postponed last November and again in March, because of the escalating aggression and hostility in the Middle East. Ludicrous, considering that our reason for going-our "mission"-was an absolute paradigm of peace: a dedication ceremony honoring the historic affiliation of two hospitals half a world apart-one Catholic (Our Lady of Mercy Hospital in New York), one Jewish (Assaf Medical Center in Israel)-and the man who helped make it happen, our beloved Cardinal O'Connor. The affiliation is a partnership committed to serving the human person, from pre-birth to natural death, from neonatology to geriatrics-the terminally ill, the frail, the frightened, and the innocent unborn will all benefit. I think of it as a minor miracle. Yes, minor: there will be even greater miracles here.

Riding from the airport to Jerusalem with our hosts from Assaf Medical Center, we are struck by the richness of the land, and think: "How green is my desert!" The irrigation system. The fruit-bearing trees, apricots, oranges, figs, olives, bananas. Bright, succulent, red strawberries, lush hedges of purple bougainvillea and a veritable riot of flowers in what was once a vast wasteland. . . also a miracle. Mary would later e-mail home that "Jerusalem looks like one big, beautiful bouquet."

But this is just the beginning. A most breathtaking moment is still ahead: watching Mary react to her first sight of the old city of Jerusalem. From the King's Court Garden at The King David Hotel, one gets the most dramatic view of the neighborhood where, to quote John Paul II, "God chose to pitch his tent." When one says "old" in Tel Aviv, it means 50 years; "old" in Jerusalem means three thousand. Mary's gasp is audible.

We stare and smile at the beauty of this City of Gold, even as we realize that what is so sacred and precious is also responsible for such contention in this part of the world. We stand motionless, drinking it all in: the fact that it still stands is another miracle.

There are many things we wish to see and do before Monday's ceremony. Doron, our trusted and accommodating driver and guide from previous visits, had been contacted as soon as we'd made airline reservations. He has ways and means to get us "where wise men fear to tread *" But this day we would hear him say: I cannot guarantee your safety in Bethlehem. I can take you only to the gate of Manger Square. The Palestinians will not allow my car any further. Please, my friends, come another time to take the Cardinal's sister there. I will escort her personally. Do not go now."

I had told Mary, before we left New York, that the most important advice I can give anyone visiting Israel is to listen. Listen to what the locals tell you. Heed their counsel. There is no compromise: either it's do-able or it isn't; don't guess. We listened to Doron and didn't go to Bethlehem.

Although Nazareth is under Israeli control, we had to rule it out also. To protect the Basilica of the Annunciation, the Israelis closed a myriad of once heavily traveled back roads; the round trip to Nazareth from Jerusalem would be six hours, and therefore "not do-able" on a visit this short. Yet we were determined that Mary see at least some of the holy places her brother had loved, and the monuments where he had paid his respects-places where he felt his life had been radically changed.

We begin in the Children's Room at Yad VaShem (Memorial Museum of the Shoah). The legend on the outside wall states the fact that 1.5 million children-teens, babies, infants, newborns-were murdered in the Holocaust. Yes-newborns. In From the Hunter's Net, a booklet about partial-birth abortion which I co-authored with Dr. Mary Nicholas, we include the following exchange from a Nuremberg trial transcript:

M. Dubost: In the Revier, did you see any pregnant women?

Mme. Vaillant-Couturier: Yes. The Jewish women, when they arrived in the first months of pregnancy, they were subjected to abortions. When their pregnancy was near the end, after confinement, the babies were drowned in a bucket of water. I know that because I worked in the Revier and the woman who was in charge of that task was a German midwife, who was imprisoned after performing illegal operations. After a while another doctor arrived and for 2 months they did not kill the Jewish babies. But one day an order came down from Berlin saying that again they had to be done away with. Then the mothers and their babies were put in a lorry and taken away to the gas chamber. [In Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10. Vol. 1: United States of America v. Karl Brandt, et al (Case 1: "Medical case" 1949).]