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| (photo: Kobi Gideon/Gpo-Flash 90) |
This past Tuesday, Pope Francis met with Israeli President, Shimon Peres, at the Vatican. Oh to be a fly on that wall. As they almost always are, the talks were cordial Terrasanta.net reports in an article by Edward Pentin entitled, “Peres Invites Pope to Israel, Discusses State Relations with Local Church”.
The Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land has a great interest not only in this conversation but future conversations. And not just conversations but actions that do or do not follow those conversations. For example, will Israel re-chart the path that “The Wall” takes so that it doesn’t cut through the Cremisan Valley, which happens to include Catholic-held lands? Will they instead follow the Green Line that was drawn out so many years before? Another way to ask that question is, “Will the wall cut off more Palestinian Christians, ones who happen to live there, because of this expropriation of lands?” Pentin reports that the same thought coming from no other than the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land (ACOHL), a statement signed by Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal.
Only time will tell. But in the meantime, we continue to pray for peace despite the expropriation of land that continues to hurt Palestinian Christians.
Pope Francis may be in the Holy Land sometime in 2014. May his voice be heard and heeded.