Pope, Hope in Hand, Arrives in Mideast - May 2009
"'The thing that worries me most is the speech that the pope will deliver here,' Archbishop Fouad Twal, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, told the Israeli daily Haaretz on Wednesday. 'One word for the Muslims and I’m in trouble; one word for the Jews and I’m in trouble. At the end of the visit the pope goes back to Rome and I stay here with the consequences.'
"But for the Vatican, Benedict’s trip is an opportunity to urge Palestinians and Israelis toward peace and to continue his assiduous efforts to improve his standing with Jews and Muslims.
"'The trip is very important and very complex,' the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said this week. He called the journey 'an act of hope and faith toward peace and reconciliation.' Given the tensions in the region, he added, 'it seems a brave gesture.'"
"But for the Vatican, Benedict’s trip is an opportunity to urge Palestinians and Israelis toward peace and to continue his assiduous efforts to improve his standing with Jews and Muslims.
"'The trip is very important and very complex,' the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said this week. He called the journey 'an act of hope and faith toward peace and reconciliation.' Given the tensions in the region, he added, 'it seems a brave gesture.'"
Read the entire article, Pope, Hope in Hand, Arrives in Mideast
