The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Fouad Twal, renewed his call for reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians during the Mass for the World Day of Peace on January 1.

According to the SIR news agency, Archbishop Twal said peace between the peoples of the Holy Land should be promoted as “a new way of living together as brothers and sisters, in trust rather than in fear, in kindness rather than in criticism, in love rather than in hatred - as peace begins inside each one of us.”

Referring later to the present-day situation in the Holy Land and to the synod for the Middle East to be held in October of this year, the archbishop said, “The Church in Jerusalem will have a predominant role. Jerusalem is the key to the Middle East and war or peace depends on it.”