Pope appeals for peace, condemns anti-Semitism
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JERUSALEM (CNS) — Passing the midpoint of his Holy Land pilgrimage, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated an open-air Mass in Jerusalem, prayed at the Western Wall and visited one of Islam’s most sacred shrines.
The pope’s events May 12 underscored his message that Jerusalem, a meeting ground for Christianity, Judaism and Islam, must again become a city of peace. It was his second day in the holy city after four days in Jordan.
The pope made a morning visit to the Dome of the Rock, sacred to Muslims as the place from which Mohammed ascended to heaven. He told Islamic leaders there that Christians, Muslims and Jews have a “grave responsibility” to expand dialogue and mend divisions.
The pope then went to the Western Wall, a site sacred to Jews as the remains of the Second Temple, and placed a written prayer in a crevice between the massive stones. It asked God to “hear the cry of the afflicted, the fearful, the bereft; send your peace upon this Holy Land, upon the Middle East, upon the entire human family.”
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