Pope Francis' Visit to Israel

Addresses by Pope Francis

• Meeting with the Authorities of the Kingdom of Jordan (Amman, 24 May 2014)
  
• Holy Mass at the Amman International Stadium (24 May 2014)
  
• Meeting with refugees and young people with disabilities in the Latin Church in Bethany beyond the Jordan (24 May 2014)
  
• Meeting with Palestinian Authorities (Bethlehem, 25 May 2014)
  
• Holy Mass in Manger Square in Bethlehem (25 May 2014)
  
• Regina Coeli Prayer (Bethlehem, 25 May 2014)
  
• Welcoming ceremony at the Tel Aviv Ben Gurion International Airport (Tel Aviv, 25 May 2014)
  
• Common Declaration of Pope Francis and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I - Private Meeting with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople at the Apostolic Delegation of Jerusalem (25 May 2014)
  
• Ecumenical Celebration on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the meeting in Jerusalem between Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras (Jerusalem, Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, 25 May 2014) (Video)
  
• Visit to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in the building of the Great Council on the Esplanade of the Mosques (Jerusalem, 26 May 2014)
  
• Visit to the Yad Vashem Memorial in Jerusalem (26 May 2014)
  
• Courtesy visit to the two chief rabbis of Israel at Heichal Shlomo Center in Jerusalem, next to the Jerusalem Great Synagogue (Jerusalem, 26 May 2014)
  
• Courtesy visit to the President of the State of Israel in the Presidential Residence (Jerusalem, 26 May 2014)
  
• Meeting with priests, religious and seminarians in the Church of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives (Jerusalem, 26 May 2014)
  
• Holy Mass with the Ordinaries of the Holy Land and the Papal Entourage (Room of the Cenacle in Jerusalem, 26 May 2014)
  

Media Coverage

• Photo Story of Pope Francis’ Historic Pilgrimage to the Holy Land Salt and Light TV. 05/28/14.
  
• Pope, arriving in Holy Land, calls for religious freedom in Middle East 05/24/14.
  
• At Amman Mass, pope calls on Christians to promote peace Catholic News Service. 05/24/14.
  
• At River Jordan, pope meets suffering, speaks against arms trade Catholic News Service. 05/24/14. Jordan's powerful and marginalized joined together at the banks of the River Jordan to welcome Pope Francis at the site believed to be where Jesus was baptized.
  
• When Pope Francis asked an Israeli Reporter, "How Can I Help?", by Gerard O'Connell. America 05/24/14:

  On 13 June 2013, Pope Francis granted an interview to Israel’s Channel 2 TV at Santa Marta, the Vatican guesthouse where he lives. That interview made history; it was the first time that a TV crew entered Santa Marta to interview the pope.
  

  What is not known, however, is that immediately afterwards Francis asked to speak in private with the TV reporter, Henrique Cymerman. He opened the conversation with a highly significant question regarding the Israeli-Palestinian situation: “How can I help?” and he then followed up with a series of other pertinent questions. ...

• Bayit Yehudi denies boycott of Pope Jerusalem Post 05/25/14. Fewer than 10 ministers greeted Pope Francis, much fewer than US president Barack Obama in 2013; Bayit Yehudi had no representative at the greeting ceremony, insists there was not planned boycott of the pope.
  
• Pope concludes first day in Israel with visit to Jerusalem Jerusalem Post 05/25/14.
  
• Francis prays in silence before the Wall of division La Stampa "Vatican Insider" 05/25/14:

  Pope Francis has touched the Wall of Division. In a resounding unscheduled stop during his visit to the Holy Land, before the Mass in Bethlehem’s Manger Square, the Bishop of Rome asked to be driven in front of a point of the cement barrier that Israel has been constructing since 2002 and that runs largely through Palestinian occupied territory, contravening international laws. There, Pope Francis remained a few minutes in total silence, surrounded by a group of young Palestinians.
  

  It was a silence that said more than a thousand speeches could, before the wall that, as the Mayor of Bethlehem Vera Baboun has said, also separates the Birthplace of Jesus from the place of his Resurrection. ...

• Pope invites Israeli, Palestinian leaders to Rome to pray for peace, by Francis X. Rocca. Catholic News Service. 05/25/14:

  Pope Francis invited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Shimon Peres to pray together at the Vatican for peace between their nations. ...

  arriving at Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Pope Francis was greeted by Peres and by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. There the pope repeated his invitation to Peres using exactly the same words with which he had invited Abbas.
  

  He also urged Israel to stay on the "path of dialogue, reconciliation and peace," saying "there is simply no other way."
  

  "The right of the state of Israel to exist and to flourish in peace and security within internationally recognized borders must be universally recognized," the pope said. "At the same time, there must also be a recognition of the right of the Palestinian people to a sovereign homeland and their right to live with dignity and with freedom of movement."