Pope Francis Visits Jordan, Israel, Palestine: Expect the Unexpected

Admin Fri 23 May 2014, 9:48 am

Pope Francis Visits Jordan, Israel, Palestine: Expect the Unexpected
Elizabeth Dias @elizabethjdias May 22, 2014
In a region where politics and religion have been enmeshed for centuries, the Pope's simplest actions will carry both spiritual and social weight. It will be the first time that an official papal delegation will include members of other faiths—an imam and a rabbi

Pope Francis hasn’t even left for his weekend tour of the Holy Land and his trip is already breaking with tradition.

Pope Francis is also packing an enormous amount into a short weekend: three regions in three days, and at least 13 speeches or homilies.
On Saturday, he flies to Amman, Jordan, where he will meet King Abdullah II, whom he has already met with twice at the Vatican, celebrate mass at the International Stadium, visit the site of Jesus’ baptism, and meet with refugees.
Sunday morning he will helicopter to Bethlehem in the West Bank. There he will meet with Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, whom he met in Rome last October, and then celebrate mass in Manger Square, tour the Church of the Nativity that marks Christ’s birthplace, and meet with children from the refugee camps of Deheisheh, Aida, and Beit Jibrin.
Sunday evening he will head to Jerusalem and meet with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this historic meeting between Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras.
On Monday, he will visit the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the Western Wall, and Yad Vashem. He will spend time with the two Chief Rabbis, and with Israel’s president Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. To wrap it all up, he will meet with men and women religious in the church of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives, celebrate mass one more time, and then depart for Rome at 8 p.m.
The rigorous schedule aside, the trip’s unexpected and symbolic moments may be the most significant. The Holy Father has made it clear that, in all things, the church must affirm mercy, and no doubt that theme will emerge again this weekend. Francis is a canny operator, aware that saying mass at the island of Lampedusa indicates that the Vatican stands with the immigrant, or that washing the feet of Muslim women pushes the church towards humility. This trip’s immediate focus may not be political, but in a region where politics and religion have been enmeshed for centuries, it is hard to imagine that even his simplest actions—where he celebrates mass, for whom he prays, and what or whom he blesses—will not carry both spiritual and social weight.
Anticipation for what is to come, both planned and unexpected, is running high. Jordan has a website, far more sophisticated than the Vatican’s, dedicated solely to the less-than-24-hours visit. Israel has assigned an extra 8,000 officers to security detail in Jerusalem. For now, however, Francis has asked people worldwide to simply pray. He has two prayer requests: one, for his meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, who represents the Eastern churches, and two, for peace in the region. The land, as he said in his Wednesday audience, “has suffered greatly.”

Pope Francis’ Trip to the Holy Land Will Bring Attention to Global War on Christians
Christopher J. Hale @@chrisjollyhale May 22, 2014
Pope Francis’s trip to the Holy Land offers a chance to lift up the realities of persecution and violence against Christians in the region.
As Pope Francis heads to the Holy Land this weekend to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Paul VI’s historic 1964 trip, he does so amidst increasing violence against the dwindling Christian population in the region.
There are even growing concerns for the pope’s safety himself after news emerged earlier this month that Jewish extremists graffitied Vatican-owned property with vitriolic taunts, including “Death to Arabs and Christians and all those who hate Israel!”
It’s clear that Francis’s trip offers a chance to lift up the realities of persecution and violence against Christians in the region. But it also provides the world an opportunity to more fully grasp what Boston Globe religion reporter John Allen calls the “global war on Christians.”

It seems that popular culture in the West is only nominally aware of this global epidemic. According to the Vatican, over 100,000 Christians are murdered by some relation to their faith every year. And just last week, a Sudanese woman was sentenced to death for marrying a Christian.

To be fair, Western media does cover these individual events, particularly if a large number of people are killed. But they have yet to cover in depth the generalized mayhem and violence against the Christian people globally. The violence goes beyond the Middle East. Christian persecution is just as prominent in India, Indonesia and Kenya among other nations. It’s hard to imagine how we can be so silent and indifferent in the face of such global violence against vulnerable populations.
Francis has spoken out loudly on this issue before. On December 26th—the Feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr—Francis lambasted countries that allow violence against religious minorities to flourish in their borders. But he also reminded the faithful that in martyrdom “violence is conquered by love, death by life.”
This witness of martyrdom is indeed powerful. It shows that there are things indeed worth dying for. But that witness is only powerful if it is known. In his papacy, Francis has been able to shift the media focus on the forgotten people of the world, particularly immigrants, the poor, the young, the elderly and the sick. This week, he’ll turn the media’s attentions towards another group: those who are persecuted for their faith.

Let’s hope the West is affected by his message and awakens to the uncomfortable reality that it is actually Christians who are the most persecuted group in contemporary society.

Christopher Hale is a senior fellow at Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. He helped lead national Catholic outreach for President Obama’s re-election campaign. You can follow him on Twitter@chrisjollyhale.