PRESS RELEASE:

(Regarding the following new item)

Chicago Jewish News - February 18 - 24, 2000
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> Pope John Paul II will visit a Palestinian refugee camp near
Bethlehem during his pilgrimage to the region next month, the
head of the Roman Catholic Church in Jerusalem said. Michel
Sabbah added that the pope plans to support refugee demands
to return to their homes within Israel.

THE RESPONSE:

A PUBLIC REQUEST TO THE HOLY FATHER
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To Extend the Right of Return to the Bones of Flavius Josephus

TO: The Most Honorable Pontiff, the Roman Catholic Church
Vatican City, Rome, Italy

Most Honorable Pontiff:

We notice according to the most honorable Michel Sabbah
that you intend to extend to Arabs whose grandparents left Israel in 1948
the right to return to what were formerly their homes. However, first
things first, before their right of return is considered, another esteemed
man deserves that his bones be returned to Israel and re-interred there.
That is Flavius Josephus, proper name Arrius Calpurnius Piso, who was
Jewish by Jewish law because his mother Arria Jr was descended through
her mother from King Herod the Great.

You will likely locate his bones honorably interred in either the
tomb of St. Callixtus (implied by Ben Hur and A. Conan Doyle) or that
of his wife Priscilla (Boionia Procilla) in Rome. He deserves the right of
return, the honor of having this bones moved to Israel and there
re-interred. No less should be done for him than was done for other great
men, Joseph from Egypt and recently Theodor Herzl from Vienna, whose
bones were posthumously carried to Israel and reburied there.

A suitable mausoleum can be erected in the Valley of Hinnom
with a cross atop it borrowed from Auschwitz, 14, 16, or 19 feet tall,
where it is no longer needed and you and millions of your faithful can
visit when you and they wish to pray for his soul and do homage to him
for his creation of the New Testament and Christianity.

Please consider this petition and take the necessary steps to
return Josephus’ bones to his mother’s people.

Your Jewish Friends

THE FRIENDS OF JOSEPHUS