Israeli, Palestinian presidents join Pope in prayers for peace

June 09, 2014

Pope Francis hosted an unprecedented prayer meeting at the Vatican on June 8, as Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas joined him to pray for peace.

"Peacemaking calls for courage, much more so than warfare," the Pope said in his own prepared remarks during the service. The willingness to engage in dialogue, even after repeated failures, will require "strength and tenacity."

The Pope said that he was "profoundly grateful" to the two leaders for accepting the invitation he had extended during his trip to the Holy Land. He also thanked Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, who traveled to Rome to join in the prayer service.

The service, held in the Vatican Gardens, consisted for separate prayers in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions, interspersed with music. The Pope and Presidents Peres and Abbas then each offered brief thoughts.

While few observers expected the meeting to produce any immediate or dramatic results, reporters saw the unexpected gathering as a powerful assertion of the Vatican's role in international diplomacy, as well as a prod to Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Andrea Tornielli of La Stampa observed:

Francis wanted to throw a stone into a stagnant negotiation process, interrupted after the decision of Abu Mazen to create a national unity government with Hamas leaders, which was followed by the go-ahead announced by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for thousands of new settlements in the West Bank.

 

---

For all current news, visit our News home page.

---

 
Further information:

• Pope Francis and the Presidents of Israel and Palestine Invoke Peace (VIS)
• Pope Francis: a prayer for peace (Vatican Radio)
• Israeli President Shimon Peres speaks to peace gathering (Vatican Radio)
• Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks at Invocation for Peace (Vatican Radio)
• For Vatican, a path back to diplomatic relevance (Boston Globe)
• Bringing together the three “brothers”: the strength of an unprecedented gesture (La Stampa)
• Prayer Meeting Shows Pope’s Larger Vision (New York Times)