Pope Francis Visits the Middle East

Pope Hails ‘Courage’ of Israeli, Palestinian Presidents

Pope Francis praised the “courage” of Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas after both agreed to come to the Vatican to pray with him for peace.

The Pope said, “The meeting in the Vatican is to pray together, it’s not a mediation”. The Pope capped his diplomatically risky visit with a mass at a contested Jerusalem site where he made an impassioned call for an end to religious intolerance, saying believers must have free access to sites they consider sacred within the Holy City.

Pope Francis called for urgent steps to end Syria’s three-year-old civil war when arrived in neighboring Jordan at the start of his Middle East trip aimed at bringing hope to the region’s dwindling Christian population. Addressing Jordan’s King Abdullah, Francis praised the Western-backed kingdom for its efforts to “to seek lasting peace for the entire region.”

After meeting King Abdullah and saying a Mass in an Amman stadium, the pontiff will meet some of those Syrian refugees in Bethany on the Jordan, the place where according to tradition Jesus was baptised, as well as others who fled violence in Iraq.

Pope Heckled by youths as he visits Jerusalem

The Pope celebrated the last public mass of his visit at the Upper Room on Mount Zion, in which Jesus is believed to have held the Last Supper. Vatican efforts to negotiate greater rights for Christians to access the Upper Room have sparked angry and sometimes violent opposition from nationalist and Orthodox Jews, who revere part of the building as the tomb of King David.

Touring the holiest sites in Jerusalem’s walled Old City, he issued a call for the three religions to “work together for justice and peace” as he was shown around the Al-Aqsa compound, the third holiest site in Islam which Jews also consider sacred. At the Western Wall, the holiest site at which Jews can pray, he left a note in between the ancient stones before sharing an emotional embrace with two close friends travelling with him, Rabbi Abraham Skorka and Islamic studies professor Omar Abboud.

Watching from a distance were a handful of ultra-Orthodox youngsters who shouted : “Tragedy, horrible!” in Yiddish.

Pope’s unscheduled stops seen as an Eloquent and Clear Message by Palestinians

During Francis’s tour, which also took in Jordan, he spoke out against anti-Semitism and made unscheduled stops. In Bethlehem he surprised his entourage by hopping out of his white open jeep to touch and briefly pray at Israel’s towering concrete separation barrier which cuts through the West Bank city in what the Palestinians hailed as an “eloquent and clear message”.

Israel says the barrier, which it began building in 2002, is crucial for security. Palestinians see it as a land grab aimed at stealing territory they want for a future state. On Monday, he made a surprise stop at an Israeli memorial for victims of militant attacks, reportedly at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request. In Jordan, the pontiff appealed for an end to the bloodshed in Syria, before flying to Bethlehem, in what was seen as a nod towards Palestinian statehood aspirations.

Pope Says Israeli-Palestinian

Conflict ‘Unacceptable’

Looking tired as he arrived from Jordan by helicopter, the pope received a red carpet welcome from local officials and priests. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas received him at his palace with a warm embrace. Abbas raised the thorny subject of Jerusalem -- claimed both by Israel and the Palestinians as their capital. Francis did not mince words in his speech, as he called for peace.

«The time has come to put an end to this situation which has become increasingly unacceptable,   peace rests on the acknowledgment by all of the right of two states to exist and to live in peace and security within internationally recognized borders.” “ he said.

In Manger Square, Catholic pilgrims had filed past security barriers into the square, since dawn. The scene was dominated by a stage where the pope celebrated mass, decked with huge Palestinian and Vatican flags and adorned with a giant tableau depicting the birth of Jesus.

Pope Heals Wounds

In a decision that delighted his hosts, Francis later laid a wreath at the tomb of Theodor Herzl, who is seen as the founder of modern Zionism that led to Israel’s foundation. The Catholic Church initially opposed the creation of a Jewish state, and the three other pontiffs who have come to Jerusalem over the past 50 years did not visit the site.

The pope then visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum which commemorates some 6 million Jews slaughtered during World War Two, kissing the hands of survivors in a sombre chamber of remembrance lit by a memorial flame.