The Pontiff also visited the al-Hussein bin-Talal Mosque, which was built by King Abdullah II in memory of his father. “How important it is,” he commented, “that Christians and Muslims live together peacefully in mutual respect.” The Christian community in Jordan, Pope informed, provides education and aid to the needy independent of their religious convictions.
The Holy Father recalled that when he visited the Our Lady of Peace (Regina Pacis) Rehabilitation Center for the Disabled, “I was able to bring a word of hope, but I received it in turn.” He also brought to mind the opportunity he had to bless the cornerstone of Madaba Catholic University, which “tangibly manifests the Churches love for the search for truth and common good, an essential first step to dialogue between civilizations.”
On May 11, Benedict XVI arrived in Israel on a trip as “a pilgrim of faith in the Land where Jesus was born, lived, died and rose again, and, at the same time, as a pilgrim of peace, imploring God that there, where He became man, all people may live as His children, that is, as brothers and sisters."
"In that Land blessed by God at times its seems impossible to escape the spiral of violence. But nothing is impossible for God and for those who trust in Him! For this reason, faith in the one God, just and merciful, which is the most precious resource those people have, must have the power to release all its potential of respect, reconciliation and collaboration." The Pope went on to explain how he had expressed this hope to the Grand Mufti and the heads of the Muslim community of Jerusalem, to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and to organizations dedicated to inter-religious dialogue.
Jerusalem, the Pope said, is “the crossroads of these three great religions and its very name means city of peace, it expresses God’s divine plan for humanity.” “All believers,” he added, “must leave prejudice and the will to predominate at their backs and unanimously practice the fundamental commandment that is to love God with all our being and love our neighbor with all of ourselves.”
“This is what Jews, Christians and Muslims are called to witness, to honor by our deeds the God that we pray to with our tongues,” the Pontiff continued. “This is what I carried in my heart as I prayed in Jerusalem at the Western Wall and at the Dome of the Rock.”
The visit to Holocaust memorial museum Yad Vashem was marked by a “moment of intense contemplation.” “Every human person is sacred and his name is written on the heart of the eternal God,” the Holy Father reflected. “Never must we forget the tremendous tragedy of the Shoah: on the contrary it must always be in our memory as a universal warning of the sacredness of human life, which always bears an infinite value.”