In Holy Land, Pope Francis focuses on unity

A nun walks past a banner with an image of Pope Francis hanging on the Christian Information Center building in Jerusalem’s Old City. Pope Francis visited Jordan, the Palestinian Territories and Israel during his May 24-26 trip, his first as pope to the region. Amir Cohen, Reuters/Catholic News Service

On Pope Francis’ first trip to the Holy Land, May 24-26, his agenda focused on the search for Christian unity, particularly between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. But inevitably, in a region so rich in history and so fraught with conflict, he addressed other urgent issues, including dialogue with Jews and Muslims, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the plight of the Middle East’s shrinking Christian population.

The Vatican emphasized that the pope’s main purpose on the trip was to meet in Jerusalem with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, considered first among equals by Orthodox bishops. The official logo for the papal visit is an icon of the Apostles Peter and Andrew, patron saints of the churches of Rome and Constantinople, joined in a fraternal embrace.

Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew met four times during the pope’s three-day visit. Their private meeting May 25 marked the 50th anniversary of the encounter in Jerusalem between Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople, which opened the modern period of ecumenical dialogue.

At an ecumenical service that evening, representatives of the three churches who share custody of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher—Catholic, Greek-Orthodox and Armenian—prayed together at the site of Jesus’ burial and resurrection. The event was “extraordinarily historic,” according to the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, since the three communities normally observe strict separation when they worship in the church.

Despite the focus on relations among Christians, Pope Francis’ brief visit did not take in the northern Israeli region of Galilee, where most of Israel’s Christians live. Both St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict included the region on their much longer visits, respectively, in 2000 and 2009.

About 1,000 Galileans, out of a total congregation of about 9,000, attended Pope Francis’ Mass in Bethlehem May 25. Christians from Lebanon and Iraq attended the other public papal Mass of the trip, in Amman, Jordan, May 24.

The predicament of Christians throughout the Middle East were “among the principle concerns” that the pope discussed with Patriarch Bartholomew. The region’s Christian population has sharply diminished and grown increasingly precarious over the last decade, following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Arab Spring revolts against authoritarian regimes and the Syrian civil war.

Pope Francis has been especially vocal about Syria, and met with Syrian as well as Iraqi refugees following a visit to a possible site of Jesus’ baptism.

The pope’s encounters with non-Christian religious leaders during the last day of his visit, when he met with the Muslim grand mufti of Jerusalem and the two chief rabbis of Israel in separate events. In contrast to the visits of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict, this papal trip to the Holy Land did not feature any event with representatives of the three major monotheistic faiths.

Rabbi David Rosen, international director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, called that omission a “missed opportunity” for promoting peaceful coexistence, and speculated it could reflect the Vatican’s desire to avoid a repeat of an embarrassment during the 2009 papal visit. On that occasion, an interreligious event in Jerusalem involving Pope Benedict was cut short after a Muslim cleric who was not scheduled to speak took the microphone and criticized Israeli policies toward the Palestinians.

The interreligious dimension of the trip was enhanced when—for the first time in history—the papal entourage included Muslim and Jewish leaders: Omar Abboud and Rabbi Abraham Skorka, two friends of the pope from his days as archbishop of Buenos Aires.

All of the events on Pope Francis’ schedule unfolded against the sobering background of the latest breakdown in peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine. The pope addressed the problem in private remarks to Palestinian and Israeli political leaders. His meeting with Palestinian refugee children May 25 also served as a poignant illustration of the need for a resolution.

In a larger sense, the pope’s support for the unity and well-being of the region’s Christians serves the cause of peace among other groups as well, said Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre, who accompanied the pope in the Holy Land.

“We build bridges not walls,” said the cardinal, noting that much of Palestine’s Muslim leadership was educated in Christian schools.

“The presence of Christianity in the Middle East, even though a minority presence, is and has been for many years a very important ingredient for peace and harmony,” the cardinal said. “But it’s facing extinction right now.”

(Editor’s note: Due to our printing deadline, we were unable to bring full coverage of this historic event. Look for a more in-depth report in our July issue.)