Pope Promotes Reconciliation In Mideast
Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday that his visit to the Middle East was a reminder of the "inseparable bond" between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people, a relationship that has been strained at times under his leadership.
The pope spoke from Mount Nebo, the wind-swept hill overlooking the Jordan valley from where the Bible says Moses saw the Promised Land.
The pope arrived at the site on the second day of a weeklong visit to the Middle East that will also take him to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
"May our encounter today inspire in us a renewed love for the canon of sacred scripture and a desire to overcome all obstacles to the reconciliation of Christians and Jews in mutual respect and cooperation in the service of that peace to which the word of God calls us," said the German-born Benedict.
The pope sparked outrage among many Jews earlier this year when he revoked the excommunication of an ultraconservative bishop who denies the Holocaust.
Benedict had lifted his excommunication along with three other ultraconservative prelates in a bid to end a church schism.
But amid the uproar, the church has not allowed the bishop to resume his duties.
The pope's forceful condemnation of anti-Semitism and acknowledgment of Vatican mistakes have softened Jewish anger over the bishop.
But another sore point has been World War II Pope Pius XII, whom Benedict has called a great churchman.
Jews and others say he failed to do all he could to stop the extermination of European Jews.
Despite the disputes, Jewish leaders say Benedict, who served in the Hitler Youth corps as a young man in Germany and then in the army before deserting near the end of the war, has an excellent record in fighting anti-Semitism.
He has already visited synagogues in Cologne, Germany, and New York and is expected at Rome's central synagogue later this year.
The pope's visit to Mount Nebo was the first of many that Benedict will make to holy places during his first visit to the Middle East.
The pope has also had strained ties with Muslims, which he hopes to improve during his Mideast visit.
When asked what the pope hopes to achieve on this trip, CBS News consultant Father Thomas Williams said there were four areas:
"One is peace, in the Middle East peace between Christians and Jews," Father Williams told CBS Early Show anchor Chris Wragge.
Two other areas is the relationship between Christians and Jews, and Christians and Muslims. And fourth, "support for the Christians living in the Holy Land - the numbers have been declining every single year."
Father Williams said there was a danger that two particular issues - welcoming the excommunicated, Holocaust-denying Bishop Williamson back into the Catholic Church, and the insensitive comments the pope made toward Muslims a few years back - could overshadow his visit.
"Everyone's hoping they don't," Father Williams said. "King Abdullah has been very cordial, going out to meet the pope at the airport, and trying to make this trip a success. I'm hopeful that this does not overshadow it.
Father Williams said for the trip to be deemed a success, the pope needs to show his openness, a willingness to listen, and sorrow for any consternation he has caused in the past.
"He comes as a pilgrim, comes in the name of the peace, the name of the Catholic Church, and he hopes he'll be able to open those doors."
Jordan Official Thanks Pope For "Regret"
The top religious adviser to Jordan's king thanked Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday for his expression of regret after a 2006 speech that many Muslims deemed insulting to Islam's Prophet Muhammad.
Prince Ghazi bin Mohammed spoke after giving Benedict a tour of the biggest mosque in Jordan's capital, Amman, his second visit to a Muslim place of worship since becoming pope in 2005.
Benedict is in Jordan on his first Middle East tour in which he hopes to improve strained ties with both Muslims and Jews.
The pope angered many in the Muslim world three years ago when he quoted a Medieval text that characterized some of Islam's Prophet Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith.
Shortly after giving the speech, Benedict said he regretted the comments offended Muslims.
Ghazi, who is also King Abdullah II's cousin, thanked Benedict for the clarification he issued after the speech that the views did not reflect his own opinion but were instead "simply a citation in an academic lecture."
Benedict told the audience of religious leaders and government officials assembled at the King Hussein mosque Saturday that Muslims and Christians must strive to be seen as faithful worshippers of God "because of the burden of our common history" that has often been marked by misunderstanding.
The pope said it is often "ideological manipulation of religion sometimes for political ends that is the real catalyst for tension and division and at times even violence in society."
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the pope did not pray during his visit to the mosque but did stop in a "respectful moment of reflection." He was not asked to take his shoes off when he entered the mosque, which is customary for Muslims, said Lombardi.
Ghazi, who was dressed in a white robe and red and white-checkered headscarf, asked the pope to speak up for Muslim minorities in parts of the Philippines and sub-Saharan Africa who he said were "hard-pressed by Christian minorities."
Benedict expressed "deep respect" for Islam on Friday, when he arrived in Jordan on the first day of his Mideast tour, but his comments in 2006 continue to fuel criticism by some Muslims.
Jordan's hard-line Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest opposition group, said Friday that they were boycotting the pope's visit because he did not issue a public apology ahead of time as they demanded.
Focus On Christian Minority In Holy Land
Christians in the Holy Land have expressed hopes but also worries about the visit of Pope Benedict XVI.
The Holy Land's Christians are mainly Greek Catholics, Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox, with smaller contingents of Armenians, Assyrians and a handful of other groups.
The most beleaguered Christian outpost in the Holy Land can be found in the Gaza Strip, where some 3,800 Christians live among 1.4 million Muslims.
Christians in the region weathered the recent Gaza conflict between Israel and Hamas, which ravaged the densely populated coastal territory.
Abdallah Jahshan, a 32-year-old Gaza Catholic, says he hopes the Pope will help promote peace.
While relations with the Muslim majority in the Strip have traditionally been good, a Christian school has been twice attacked by unknown assailants and in October 2007 a local Christian activist was murdered. His killers have not been found.
Christians are a minority in Israel and the Palestinian territories, dwarfed by the Jewish and Muslim populations around them, and tend to be treated with suspicion by both sides.
Christians still feel deep ties to the town of Jesus' birth, even though Muslims now make up two-thirds of Bethlehem's population.
Zakaria Mishriki, a Christian shop owner in Jerusalem's Old City, feels the situation is different there.
Mishriki, who has relatives in the U.S. and Canada, said Christians in Jerusalem are "kind of loosing" their identity.
Like others, the shop owner feels Christians are treated with suspicion by both Jews and Muslims and have been caught up in an increasingly polarized conflict between them.
"Especially in the last 10 years, because this Palestinian cause was Islamised somehow, it became a Muslim cause and a Jewish cause," says Mishriki.
Vatican officials have acknowledged the problem faced by the Christian community ahead of the Pope's visit.
The Apostolic Nuncio to Israel told reporters last week that "Christians are a minority, and in a situation of difficulties, the minorities suffer always more."