AFP
Pope Francis celebrated mass at a contested Jerusalem site yesterday at the end of a whirlwind pilgrimage which saw him making a personal bid for Middle East peace.
The 77-year-old pontiff, who has made interfaith dialogue a cornerstone of his papacy, made an impassioned call for an end to religious intolerance, and insisted that believers must have free access to sites they consider sacred within the Holy City.
Despite his insistence the trip would be “purely religious” he waded into the sensitive politics of the region, issuing a unique invitation to the Israeli and Palestinian presidents to pray with him at the Vatican to end their “increasingly unacceptable” conflict.
Both accepted the invitation, although it was not clear when the visit would take place.
In a fitting gesture, Francis ended his visit by celebrating mass at the Upper Room on Mt Zion, where Jesus is believed to have held the Last Supper, where Christians have access but very limited freedom of worship.
Vatican efforts to negotiate greater rights at the Upper Room have sparked opposition from nationalist and Orthodox Jews, who revere part of the building as the tomb of King David, prompting a series of angry protests and several anti-Christian attacks.
Earlier, the pontiff had driven home a strong message about religious intolerance and called for “free access to holy sites” within Jerusalem. And he called for a “firm rejection” of intolerance towards “places of worship”, in an apparent allusion to a wave of extremist hate crimes targeting mosques and churches.
On an early-morning tour of 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.
Entering the exquisite blue-tiled Dome of the Rock with its landmark golden cupola, used as a place of worship for women only, the Pope first removed his shoes before walking down to visit the smaller, silver-domed Al Aqsa mosque.
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.
Francis had promised the three-day pilgrimage, which began on Saturday in Jordan, would steer clear of political issues.
But at the end of an open-air mass in Bethlehem, where he began the Israel-Palestinian leg of his trip, he invited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres to join him at the Vatican for a “heartfelt prayer” for peace.
Peres told the Pope he was happy to accept, while a senior Palestinian official confirmed Abbas would visit the Vatican for the prayer on June 6.
In a further divergence from prepared texts, the Pope spoke out against anti-Semitism and religious intolerance and made unscheduled stops which were seized upon as political capital by Israel and the Palestinians.
In Bethlehem he surprised his entourage by hopping out of his white open jeep to touch and briefly pray at Israel’s towering concrete 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.
Yesterday, he made an impromptu stop at an Israeli memorial for victims of militant attacks, reportedly at the personal request of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu thanked the Pope for visiting the memorial, telling him it was directly connected to the barrier.
“If the incitement against the state of Israel stops, if terror stops, there won’t be a need for the measures that we’ve taken, like the security fence which has saved thousands of lives,” Netanyahu said.
“After it was set up, the terror stopped.”
In Jordan, Francis appealed for an end to the bloodshed in Syria, before beginning the Israeli-Palestinian leg of the trip by flying directly to Bethlehem, in what was seen as a nod towards Palestinian statehood aspirations.
But the Vatican denied the Pope was pursuing any political agenda, with spokesman Federico Lombardi saying the unscheduled stops were “gestures … (which) rounded out his official programme”.
Israel said his visit to the memorial for attack victims had balanced out the picture.
“Those who think that he leant towards the Palestinian perspective are wrong,” foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said.
“In going to the attack victims’ memorial at Mt Herzl, the Pope was able to understand why this barrier was erected.”
Yesterday morning, the Pope also visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, where he denounced the “unfathomable abyss” of the Nazi genocide which claimed the lives of 6mn Jews.