Pope in Mid East

Pope bears a message of Catholic-Jewish cooperation L.A. Times — When Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Israel today for his first visit to the Holy Land, he will bear a message of religious cooperation aimed in part at strengthening often shaky Catholic-Jewish relations. Benedict's Middle East pilgrimage began in Jordan and will also take him to the West Bank, where he'll visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and Jerusalem's Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site. click to read complete article

Pope's Israel visit raises tensions Aljazeera — Pope Benedict XVI has begun the most sensitive leg of his first Middle East tour, visiting Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. The Catholic leader, who arrived in Tel Aviv on Monday, risks controversy both over his planned visit to occupied territories and a row over the Vatican's move to beatify Pope Pius XII. click to read complete article

Why Mideast Christians are Wary of Pope Benedict's Visit Time Magazine — Ever since the year 1204 A.D., when the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade sacked the Christian city of Constantinople instead of "liberating" Jerusalem from Muslim rule, Christians in the Middle East have been understandably wary of emissaries of Rome. Today, as Christians in the Middle East welcome Pope Benedict XVI on his first trip to the Holy Land, many are worried that the unpredictable Pontiff might stir up passions at a time of religious strife and political cold war. "The thing that worries me most is the speech that the Pope will deliver here," said Archbishop Fouad Twal, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Wednesday. "One word for the Muslims and I'm in trouble; one word for the Jews and I'm in trouble. At the end of the visit the Pope goes back to Rome and I stay here with the consequences." click to read complete article