(CNA/EWTN News).- The auxiliary bishop of Jerusalem described the recent prayer shared between Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew I as a moving event, predicting future blessings from the encounter.
“Really, it was moving. It was very moving and emotional,” Bishop William Shomali of Jerusalem told CNA May 25, explaining that he had never witnessed anything like it before.
“The humility of the Pope, the friendship which was born between the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople, the atmosphere, the nature of people present of the Holy Sepulcher. It was historical in all ways.”
Bishop Shomali, who was present during the communal prayer at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher May 25 during the Pope’s trip to the Holy Land earlier this week, said that the importance of that moment in terms of unity amongst the varying rites was never doubted.