Scottish Catholic Observer

Pope Francis’ unprecedented call for action after appealing for peace in the troubled land of Christ’s birth is uniting a divided region.

During his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the Holy Father invited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Shimon Peres to pray together at the Vatican for peace between their nations and both have agreed to join him there next month.

The Pope extended his invitation to the two leaders at the end of the celebration of Mass that President Abbas attended in Manger Square, in Bethlehem on the West Bank. Later in the day, arriving at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Pope Francis was greeted by President Peres and by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. There the Pope repeated his invitation to President Peres using exactly the same words with which he had invited President Abbas.

The Holy Father also urged Israel to stay on the ‘path of dialogue, reconciliation and peace,’ saying ‘there is simply no other way.’

Last Sunday, the Pope made an unscheduled stop to pray before a controversial separation wall, built by Israel over Palestinian protests, between its territory and the West Bank. The Pope unexpectedly stopped the vehicle he was travelling in and alighted, then walked over to the graffiti-covered structure and rested his forehead against it in silence for a few moments.

Meeting with Palestinian leaders in Bethlehem, Pope Francis voiced his sympathy with ‘those who suffer most’ from the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a situation he called ‘increasingly unacceptable.’

During a speech to President Abbas and other dignitaries in the presidential palace, the Pope decried the Israeli-Palestinian conflict’s ‘tragic consequences,’ including ‘insecurity, the violation of rights, isolation and the flight of entire communities, conflicts, shortages and sufferings of every sort.’

“In expressing my closeness to those who suffer most from this conflict, I wish to state my heartfelt conviction that the time has come to put an end to this situation which has become increasingly unacceptable,” he said.

The Pope said lasting peace would require the ‘acknowledgement by all of the right of two states to live in peace and security within internationally recognised borders.’

During his visit to the Holy Land, Pope Frances also expressed his concern for Palestinian Christians, who he said contributed ‘significantly to the common good of society’ and deserved accordingly to be treated as ‘full citizens.’

On Monday, the final say of his trip, the Pope met with Muslims and Jews and called for closer relations among the three major monotheistic religions as the basis for peace in the region.

Pope Francis toured the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, sacred to Muslims as the place from which the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven, and spoke to Muslim leaders. He then visited the Western Wall, the only standing part of the foundation of the Second Temple, destroyed in 70 AD. Stepping away from the wall, the Pope simultaneously embraced Rabbi Skorka and Omar Abboud, a Jewish Rabbi and Muslim leader from Buenos Aires and members of the papal entourage. “We did it,” Rabbi Skorka said he told the Pope and Omar Abboud.

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—This story ran in full in the May 30 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes, with more on Papal visit to the Holy Land.