Breda O'BrienThe Holy Land visit demonstrates the difficult task of being Pope
Pope Francis’ itinerary on his trip to the Holy Land was punishing. He is not a young man, although since his appointment to the papacy he seems infused with energy.
His primary aim was to build on the great work done by St John Paul and Pope Emeritus Benedict in forging stronger links with the Orthodox Church. The visit came about because of an invitation from Patriarch Bartholomew to visit the Holy Land together.
The Pope has a warm relationship with his ‘brother Andrew’, a reference to the traditional belief that it was Andrew, brother of Peter, who was the initial evangeliser of what became the Orthodox Church.
Pope Francis’ fondness for describing himself as Bishop of Rome is interpreted by many as a gesture towards the Orthodox Churches, for whom the primacy of the Pope as understood by Catholics is a stumbling block. But there are many obstacles and hurdles to be overcome before anything approaching full unity can come about.
During this visit, he also aimed to support Christians whose numbers have declined precipitously in many parts of the Middle East, and who are facing persecution in many places.
‘Triple whammy’
Some Christians in the Holy Land face what the Americans call a ‘triple whammy’. They are Christians, Arabs and Palestinians, and all three identities are contentious.
He has called in this visit for greater religious freedom, a call that will have great resonance for Christians who may feel as if they are aliens in their own land.
Finally, there is the question of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Last Sunday, Francis referred to “the right of the State of Israel to exist and to flourish in peace and security within internationally recognised boundaries” while also calling for “recognition of the right of the Palestinian people to a sovereign homeland and their right to live with dignity and with freedom of movement.”
This visit will probably be remembered for two gestures – the brief moment of prayer at the graffiti-ed wall that separates the two communities, and the bold symbolism of asking Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Shimon Peres to come to the Vatican to pray for peace. They have accepted.
While the Algemeiner, an influential Jewish newspaper in the US, complained bitterly about the propaganda victory won by the Palestinians because the Pope paused to pray at a part of the wall that contained graffiti comparing the fate of Palestinians to that of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto, others were more positive.
The visit to the Holy Land was a minefield, to the extent that some radical Jews were arrested for protesting that Mass was said in the Cenacle, the site believed by many to be where the Last Supper took place.
The site is in the same complex as King David’s tomb, and some Orthodox Jews objected that the Pope celebrating the Eucharist there would ‘defile’ the area.
Friends to the Jews
Perhaps it may have helped that the Pope visited in the wake of the canonisation of two Popes recognised as being friends to the Jews.
St John XXIII in his earlier life as Archbishop Angelo Roncalli was Papal Nuncio to Bulgaria. He issued false baptismal papers there and took other risks to save Jews during the Holocaust. Later in his papacy, he convened the Second Vatican Council, which culminated with the historic declaration, Nostra Aetate. The declaration made it clear that Jews are our elder brothers in the Faith, and should be treated with respect.
St John Paul had from boyhood a very dear Jewish friend, Jerzy Kluger. This friendship helped to shape his views of Judaism, and it was not surprising that the Vatican recognised the Israeli state in 1994. He then visited Israel in 2000, and in a very moving moment prayed at the Western Wall.
This short visit to the Holy Land shows how difficult and demanding the many tasks of a Pope are. Even though, in Stalin’s famously dismissive phrase, the Pope has no divisions, he has enormous influence and ‘soft power’. In fact, Joseph Nye, the Harvard scholar who coined the phrase, regularly uses Stalin’s phrase to illustrate what soft power means, that is, the power to attract and co-opt, even in the absence of any ‘hard power’.
However, this position of influence must take an enormous toll. We saw it with John Paul, who went from enormous vitality to a crippled old man, and with Benedict, who grew so tired and frail that he felt the Holy Spirit calling him to retire.
Pope Francis has great vigour, but he, too, at times looks exhausted. It is a reminder to us to re-double our prayers for him, in this role he would never have chosen but has embraced with such grace and inspiration.