The Catholics and Organ Disagreements in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Since the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has a very important place in Christianity, every Christian denomination has wanted to be in control of the place. This has led to violation of each other's rights and a series of disputes and fights between the concerned sects. These disputes and fights have generally broken out among Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Catholic Latin communities. The Ottoman administration used to proclaim the rights on the Church they granted to these religious communities by issuing edicts. Thus, they not only protected their rights but also prevented disputes from arising. The fact that Catholics wanted to install an organ in the Church in the 19th. Century led to disputes among Greek and Armenian churches. Since this was not an old problem, it was not resolved by edicts but by deciding to go on using the organ as it had been used before. After the issue was resolved, the Catholics installed a second big organ in the Church and rekindled the old disputes. This study gives information on the rights and number of the Catholic community in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and deals with the disputes regarding the organ they want to install in the Church. Also, the solution the Ottoman Administration found for the organ problem and their attitude towards the problem are dealt with in this study