Editorial

Bold Gestures, Dramatic Possibilities

Posted

To say that Pope Francis’ trip to the Holy Land wowed the world is almost an understatement.

Filled with dramatic images and bold, unexpected gestures, the three-day journey billed as a pilgrimage of prayer became, as it unfolded, a voyage of reconciliation, engagement and hope.

Such a trip was, perhaps, one that could only have been undertaken by Pope Francis, whose beguiling humility, spontaneity and openness—despite his status as supreme pontiff—has endeared him to believers and non-believers alike.

The images that flew around the Internet within minutes after the events were poignant: The pope praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, a scheduled stop that most visitors make; then the unscheduled prayer stops, at the controversial separation wall erected by Israel between Palestinian Bethlehem and Jerusalem, and at the wall in Jerusalem commemorating Jews killed by terrorists.

He toured the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, another must-see stop, where he likened the genocide to the fall of Adam and prayed for “the grace to be ashamed of what we men have done.” In Bethlehem, he met with Palestinian leaders and voiced his sympathy with “those who suffer most” from the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a situation he called “increasingly unacceptable.”

Promoting cooperation with Orthodox Christians, the pope joined Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in a prayer service at the Church of the Holy Selpucher, believed to be Jesus’ burial site, 50 years after a historic encounter in Jerusalem between their predecessors. Earlier, the two leaders met for more than an hour, emerging with a signed declaration calling for “communion in legitimate diversity” between their churches and looking forward in “eager anticipation to the day in which we will finally partake together in the Eucharistic banquet.”

He also visited the Dome of the Rock and met with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, laid a wreath at the tomb of Theodor Herzl, whose Zionist movement led to the founding of Israel, met with the chief rabbis of Israel and, in Bethlehem, expressed concern for Palestinian Christians, calling for them to be treated as “full citizens” under the Palestinian Authority.

The most stunning development, however, was the pope’s very unexpected invitation to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Shimon Peres to join him at the Vatican to pray for peace.

Both men immediately accepted, with the meeting likely to take place within the next two weeks.

It was a brilliant move by Pope Francis, who right from the start set the tone of his pontificate as one that reaches out rather than turns inward.

Now, just one month after the latest attempts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed, the pope has offered hope to a troubled land. Hope that an Israeli and a Palestinian official, meeting on neutral ground as guests of the pope, might be able to actually listen to one another without the din of factions pulling them this way and that.

Hope that the spotlight on their encounter with Pope Francis will mobilize the parties to try moving forward.

Hope that the region known as the Holy Land will put its faith in God to guide them.

But if there’s one thing that has come out of this trip for sure, it’s that we have, in the words of the Vatican spokesman, a “creative and courageous” pope. We’re waiting, excitedly, to see what’s coming next.