Dossier: End of Pope’s Visit to the Holy Land
Wednesday, May 13, in Bethlehem in Aida Refugee Camp
On Wednesday, May 13, before the president of Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, Benedict XVI stated again that the Holy See supported “the right” of his people to “a sovereign Palestinian homeland (…) secure and at peace with its neighbors, within internationally recognized borders.” The pope especially entreated young Palestinians not to resort to “violence” or “terrorism.” On his part, President Abbas, denounced Israeli occupation, and insisted that “it was time to put an end to the sufferings” of Palestinians. The President of Palestinian authority again vehemently complained about Israel’s building of a separation wall on the West bank and condemned Israeli measures which isolate East-Jerusalem from the rest of the Palestinian Territories. “On this Holy Land, there are those who keep building walls of division, instead of building bridges for coexistence, and who attempt, by sheer force of occupation to force the Christians and Muslims of this country to exile, so that our holy places be turned into mere sites for tourism, instead of being thronged by faithful,” he said.
In his address, Benedict XVI also assured the population of the Gaza strip “of his deep compassion” after the deadly offensive launched by Israelis last December and January. “This afternoon I will pay a visit to the Aida Refugee Camp, in order to express my solidarity with the people who have lost so much. To those among you who mourn the loss of family members and loved ones in the hostilities, particularly the recent conflict in Gaza, I offer an assurance of deep compassion and frequent remembrance in prayer.”
During his address pronounced in English, the pope also wanted to “plead with all the parties to this long-standing conflict to put aside whatever grievances and divisions still stand in the way of reconciliation, and to reach out with generosity and compassion to all alike, without discrimination.”
In particular, Benedict XVI “called on the international community to bring its influence to bear in favor of a solution.” “It is my earnest hope that the serious concerns involving security in Israel and the Palestinian Territories will soon be allayed sufficiently to allow greater freedom of movement, especially with regard to contact between family members and access to the holy places,” the pope also said.
In the morning of May 13, Benedict celebrated Mass on the Manger’s Square, for a crowd of 5,000 faithful, in front of the Basilica of the Nativity, on a podium decorated with a star and two doves and facing an oversize Palestinian flag. Choirs of Christians from various rites (Latin, Greek-Catholic, and Syro-Catholic) took part in the Mass. He assured the 50 some Christians from Gaza who attended the Mass, that he was praying “that the embargo would be soon lifted.” “Be not afraid,” the pope told them, asking them to be “a bridge of dialogue and constructive cooperation in the building of a culture of peace to replace the present stalemate of fear, aggression and frustration.” “I ask you to bring back to your families and your communities my warm embrace, and my sorrow for the loss, the hardship and the suffering you have had to endure,” he declared to this small group. Other faithful from Gaza wished to come to Bethlehem but were not authorized to come. As a matter of fact, Israel has been a total embargo for the Gaza strip since the Hamas had come in power in June 2007.
Meeting the press after the Mass, Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Press Bureau of the Holy See, explained that the pope wished to “take part in the suffering” of the prisoners and would meet with “two couples of prisoners’ parents, one Muslim and the other Christian, during his visit to the Palestinian refugee Camp in Aida, at 4:30 pm.” The spokesman of the Vatican insisted that this meeting took place after Benedict XVI’s interview at the Presidential Palace in Jerusalem on May 11 last, with the parents of Gilad Shalit, the French-Israeli soldier who has been kept as a hostage by the Hamas for almost three years.I’m not sure of the meaning of this last sentence. Besides, Fr. Lombardi pointed out that there were today “11,000 Palestinian prisoners” and that this action “was very important for the pope.” During his visit to the Palestinian refugee camp managed by the United Nation World Agency for Refugees (UNRWA), the Jesuit Father also said that Benedict XVI will offer the sum of 50,000€ to have three classrooms built in the camp which accommodates almost 5,000 people.
During his visit of the Aida Camp, the pope declared: “Towering over us, as we gather here this afternoon, is a stark reminder of the stalemate that relations between Israelis and Palestinians seem to have reached – the wall.” Built by Israel from 2002 onwards, this 350-km long wall encircles all of the West Bank and particularly the Palestinian Refugee Camp of Aida. From the tribune set up some 50 meters from the very high concrete wall, in the courtyard of the UNRWA boys’ school, the pope esteemed that “In a world where more and more borders are being opened up – to trade, to travel, to movement of peoples, to cultural exchanges – it is tragic to see walls still being erected. How we long to see the fruits of the much more difficult task of building peace! How earnestly we pray for an end to the hostilities that have caused this wall to be built!” On both Palestinian and Israeli side “great courage is needed if fear and mistrust is to be overcome, if the urge to retaliate for loss or injury is to be resisted. It takes magnanimity to seek reconciliation after years of fighting. Yet history has shown that peace can only come when the parties to a conflict are willing to move beyond their grievances and work together towards common goals, each taking seriously the concerns and fears of the other, striving to build an atmosphere of trust. There has to be a willingness to take bold and imaginative initiatives towards reconciliation: if each insists on prior concessions from the other, the result can only be stalemate,” Benedict XVI underlined.
On his part, Mahmoud Abbas paid tribute to the “exemplary stand taken by the Vatican” concerning the Palestinian cause in general, and the cause of the refugees in particular. The president of the Palestinian Authority also wished to address “a message of peace” to his “Israeli neighbors”, asking them also to cease occupation and colonization. Behind the pope could be read painted on the wall, inscriptions such as No Peace without Justice, No Justice without return Home, or We need bridges not walls, both in English and Italian.
Founded in 1948, Aida Camp received from its beginning the inhabitants of the neighboring villages of Jerusalem destroyed by Israel in 1948. In memory of the Naqba (‘catastrophe’ of forced Palestinians emigration after the creation of Israël), 61 black balloons were let loose, on each were the names of the Palestinian villages destroyed exactly 61 years ago. Besides, a key was handed to the pope, as a symbol of the houses which the Palestinians had to abandon in haste and which they hope to recover.
That same May 13, while visiting the Caritas Baby Hospital in Bethlehem, Benedict XVI defined this institution as “one of the smaller bridges built for peace” making his own the words of Fr. Ernst Schnydrig, the founder of the establishment. In the pope’s eyes, this pediatric hospital which receives children of all religious denominations is “a quiet oasis for the most vulnerable.”
Thursday, May 14, in Nazareth
On Thursday May 14, during the Mass celebrated before 40,000 pilgrims on the Mount of Precipice, facing the town of Nazareth, in Galilee, Benedict XVI invited the faithful to model themselves upon the example of the Holy Family. He also mentioned the figure of St. Joseph, inviting them to follow his example of “manly piety”, “fidelity to one’s word”, “integrity”: “authority placed at the service of love is infinitely more fruitful than the power which seeks to dominate.” “How much our world needs the example, guidance and quiet strength of men like Joseph!” the pope stated.
“Sadly, as the world knows, Nazareth has experienced tensions in recent years which have harmed relations between its Christian and Muslim communities.” He was thereby referring to the controversy which arose, in 2000, as a consequence of the Muslim community intention to build a mosque upon the tomb of an ancient Muslim leader, hardly 100 meters from the Basilica of the Annunciation. Benedict XVI then asked all persons of good will in both communities to remedy the damages caused and to work at building bridges, so as to find means for peaceful cohabitation. With nearly 80,000 inhabitants, 35% of them Christians, Nazareth is the largest Arab town in Israel.
In the afternoon of May 14, in Nazareth, delegations from the Vatican and from the State of Israel broached upon the subject of the negotiations which have been going on for some 10 years or so around the Fundamental Agreement (see DICI 195). Benedict XVI and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a 15-minute private interview, in a room of the Franciscan Convent in Nazareth, an interview “focused on the manner to cause the peace process to progress in the Middle East.”
At the end of a meeting with officials from various religious leaders in Nazareth, in which he took part, at the end of the afternoon on the 14th, Benedict XVI prayed for peace holding hands with a rabbi and a Muslim leader. In the auditorium of the Shrine of the Annunciation, located next to the Franciscan Convent, a Jewish leader proposed to the pope a prayer for peace as a song containing the words “Salam, Shalom, Lord grant us peace.” The Jew sang in Hebrew, Arabic, English, German and Latin. After a while, a very smiling Benedict XVI began to singsong this prayer, and then in quite an unpredictable gesture, rose together with his neighbors, holding hands on one side with Rabbi David Rosen, president of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations, and on the other side with a Druze Muslim religious leader. Prior to this, before the assembled religious leaders, Benedict XVI affirmed that: “Our different religious traditions have a powerful potential to promote a culture of peace, especially through teaching and preaching the deeper spiritual values of our common humanity.” And he added: “By molding the hearts of the young, we mold the future of humanity itself. Christians readily join Jews, Muslims, Druze, and people of other religions in wishing to safeguard children from fanaticism and violence while preparing them to be builders of a better world.”
Swiss News Agency Apic, did not hide its surprise before such a gesture which seems to indicate a change in the pope’s attitude: “Regularly warning against relativism and syncretism, Benedict XVI never showed any great liking for interreligious gestures and prayers in common. In October 1986, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was careful not to take part in the interreligious prayer meeting for peace organized in Assisi upon John Paul II’s initiative. At the time, he made no bones about his reservations concerning interreligious meetings. If he did not attend the 1986 meeting, in 2002, he was however among those who traveled to the second meeting organized around John Paul II.”
On Thursday evening, during the Vespers celebrated in the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Benedict XVI exhorted Christians to have the courage to stay in the Holy Land and to remain united. Before the bishops, priests, and religious of Galilee, the pope considered Christians in the Middle East as “effective instruments of a genuine reconciliation” between the three great monotheistic religions. “Have the confidence to be faithful to Christ and to remain here in the land that he sanctified with his own presence!” “You have a part to play in God’s plan for salvation, by bringing Christ forth into the world, by bearing witness to him and spreading his message of peace and unity. For this, it is essential that you should be united among yourselves, so that the Church in the Holy Land can be clearly recognized as ‘a sign and instrument of communion with God and of the unity of the entire human race’ Your unity in faith, hope and love is a fruit of the Holy Spirit dwelling within you, enabling you to be effective instruments of God’s peace, helping to build genuine reconciliation between the different peoples who recognize Abraham as their father in faith.”
Friday, May 15, at the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem
On Friday, May 15, during his visit to the Holy Sepulcher, in the old city of Jerusalem, Benedict XVI invited the Christians in the Holy Land to allow hope to “take root in their hearts.” Pronouncing his address only a few meters from Christ’s tomb, Benedict XVI expressed the wish that “hope may rise up ever anew, by God’s grace, in the hearts of all the people dwelling in these lands!” May “it abide in your families and communities, and inspire in each of you an ever more faithful witness to the Prince of Peace!” In the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher which “bears mute witness both to the burden of our past, with its failings, misunderstandings and conflicts,” Benedict XVI invited the attending communities to overcome (…) every conflict and tension born of the flesh, and to remove every obstacle, both within and without, standing in the way of our common witness to Christ.”
Prior to this, the pope had gone to the See of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Before Patriarch Theophilos III, he underlined the “great symbolic significance” of his visit. Calling to mind those of Paul VI (1963-1978) to the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras 1st, as well as John Paul II’s meeting with Patriarch Diodoros, Benedict XVI wished that his visit would give a new impetus to the labors of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches. The pope also expressed the wish that Christians may “find the strength to redouble [their] efforts to perfect [their] communion, to make it complete, to bear united witness to the love of the Father.” “I pray that the aspirations of the Christians of Jerusalem will be understood as being concordant with the aspirations of all its inhabitants, whatever their religion: a life of religious freedom and peaceful coexistence and – for young people in particular – unimpeded access to education and employment, the prospect of suitable housing and family residency, and the chance to benefit from and contribute to economic stability.”
In his farewell address at the Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, Benedict XVI said to Israelis and Palestinians: “Allow me to make this appeal to all the people of these lands: No more bloodshed! No more fighting! No more terrorism! No more war!” Before Israeli President Shimon Pérès, the pope condemned the Holocaust again, during which “so many Jews were brutally exterminated under a godless regime,” without however using the word “nazi”, something with which the Jewish community had already reproached him after his visit to Yad Vashem. Besides, the pope spoke of the wall encircling the West Bank, “One of the saddest sights for me during my visit to these lands,” and which does not prevent violence in the Near East. On his part, Shimon Pérès called upon the pope to help separate religion from terrorism. And he thanked Benedict XVI for his denunciation of the Holocaust and of anti-Semitism.
Calling himself a friend of both the Israelis and of the Palestinian people, the pope recalled the very close relationships between Christians and Jews. “We are nourished from the same spiritual roots. We meet as brothers, brothers who at times in our history have had a tense relationship, but now are firmly committed to building bridges of lasting friendship.”
Mentioning the “wall” separating Israel from the Palestinian Territories the pope prayed “for a future in which the peoples of the Holy Land can live together in peace and harmony without the need for such instruments of security and separation, but rather respecting and trusting one another, and renouncing all forms of violence and aggression.” Benedict XVI asked that: “it be universally recognized that the State of Israel has the right to exist, and to enjoy peace and security within internationally agreed borders. Let it be likewise acknowledged that the Palestinian people have a right to a sovereign independent homeland, to live with dignity and to travel freely.” He also noted “the great efforts that both governments are making to secure people’s well-being.” “This land is indeed a fertile ground for ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue,” the pope stated.
Read DICI Analysis: Is What Unite Us Greater than What Divides Us?
