Temple Mount, Western Wall, Holocaust Memorial: Pope Francis has other world religions in Jerusalem proved his respect. Israeli President Peres accepted the invitation to pray with Palestinian President Abbas.

On the last day of his Middle East tour Francis Pope has visited the holy places of Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem. The pontiff prayed at the Wailing Wall, and he later described the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem as the “immense tragedy.” For Israel’s president, Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres, expressed Francis “admiration”. The 90-year-old took an invitation from the Pope to pray together with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Vatican to officially.

Abbas and Peres were in the Vatican welcome to ” with me to bring together an intense prayer and to implore from God the gift of peace,” Francis said. Abbas accepted the invitation even on a Sunday .
Peres on Monday expressed the hope that the visit of the Pope in Jerusalem would increase the chances for peace in the Middle East and the realization of the two-state solution . “A Jewish state – Israel and an Arab state – . Palestine” , called the head of state as a destination. However, he has only representative functions and thus little influence on the policies of the settler -friendly government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu .

The Pope warned against unilateral steps that could complicate a peaceful solution. He called for resistance against all on what opposes a Middle East peace and the respectful coexistence of Jews, Christians and Muslims – especially violence and terrorism , all forms of discrimination and anti-Semitism. Together planted Pope and Peres in the garden of the presidential seat of an olive tree, a symbol of peace.

Pope’s visit to Jerusalem: “At what horrors you have been efficient?”

At the Wailing Wall , the Pope remained in silent contemplation and put a note in one of the cracks between the blocks. For Jews, this is a place that represents their historical claim to the land . Then put Francis as the first pope a wreath at the grave of Theodor Herzl down . Herzl was the founder of modern Zionism , and thus a symbol of the return of Jews to Israel. In Palestinian circles, this gesture was met with criticism . Earlier, the Pope had met the due inciting violence controversial Grand Mufti of Jerusalem , which Israel displeased .

The pontiff warned at the meeting with Mufti Mohammed Hussein against religiously motivated violence . “Nobody gebrauche the name of God as a justification for violence ,” he said during a brief speech on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Sunni Grand Mufti had suffered two years ago harsh criticism of Israel and the European Union , when he quoted a religious text that calls for the killing of the Jews.

In Yad Vashem , the Pope emphasized the enormity of the crimes committed by Germans and their helpers mass murder of Jews. “Maybe God could not even imagine such a case , such an abyss ,” said the head of the Catholics. “Who are you , O man, who are you become ? For what horrors have you been able What made ​​you fall so low ? ” Francis asked mindful of the murdered six million Jews during the Second World War .

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