The Lord's Shepherd : "The Language of Jesus": A New Schism?

"Disheartening!"

"Ukrainians did not want to hear a less-than-supportive voice from the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church."

"They were gravely hurt that the Holy Father would be willing to preside over a world prayer event that could cast doubt over what was really happening in Ukrainian towns and cities."

Reverend Michael Kwiatkowski, chancellor, Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy, Winnipeg, Manitoba

"It's painful for this to happen, and at Easter."

"I get it, he's the Pope, he's supposed to preach peace, he's supposed to preach reconciliation. But this is a war that Ukrainians didn't start and it's happening right now. People are being murdered, people are being raped, people are being forced from their homes ... It's the wrong time."

Lubomyr Luciuk, political geography professor, Royal Military College, Kingston, Ontario

"One thing needs to be understood: Francis is not a politician, he is a pastor, [speaking] the language of Jesus."

"Francis acts according to the evangelical spirit, which is one of reconciliation even against all visible hope during this war of aggression."

"His primary interest is not geopolitics but -- as he said three days after the outbreak of the war -- 'ordinary people, who want peace and that in every conflict are the real victims, who pay for the follies of war with their own skin'."

Father Antonio Spadaro, Jesuit priest, editor of journal La Civilta Cattolica, il manifesto

The pope has previously called the invasion “sacrilegious” | Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images

 

Pope Francis has declared himself emphatically shocked and has wasted few words in condemning a war of aggression by one neighbour against another, leading to a massive wave of refugees, thousands of people killed, a country's infrastructure massively destroyed and the world in turmoil. In his earnest denunciations of the criminality and lack of humanity involved in any conflict, others of which have occurred in other areas of the world, he also spoke of the inequity of world attention and commiseration in settling refugees, based on racism.

Delivering a pastoral message, at the same time as neutralizing the shock over a European area of conflict and its accompanying civilian victims by conflating it with what is occurring outside of Europe. And while Pope Francis earnestly deplored the war that Russia is waging against its neighbour, he confines himself to notional 'neighbours', never once identifying the aggressor nation -- Russia -- or the man behind the implacable decision to mount a violent campaign against Ukraine -- Vladimir Putin.

Worse, as the Christian world's Shepherd of good faith and brotherly love, at the very time that Russian troops are battering Ukrainian towns and cities, deliberately targeting schools and hospitals and civic institutions, burying some of their victims in mass graves, leaving other corpses to lie in the streets of towns they hurriedly abandoned on orders from Moscow to muster from the north to the eastern Ukraine, Pope Francis decided it would be very 'Christian' to choreograph a tender little play.

During the Vatican's annual Easter 'Way of the Cross' ceremonial procession through the Colosseum in Rome on Good Friday, it was arranged that a Ukrainian and a Russian woman, known to one another, in a friendly professional working relationship, held the cross during the procession. A text accompanied the event, stressing peace and reconciliation between peoples. Nowhere any indication that a brutal war is in progress, initiated by Russia against Ukraine.

On that very day, another event that raised critical eyebrows of disbelief from among the Ukrainian community, when the Vatican's Kyiv ambassador along with a cardinal from Poland held a meeting with the main Ukrainian leader of the Russian Orthodox Church. Pope Francis's champions may point out sanctimoniously that the Pope plays no political games, but the emissary of the Russian Orthodox Church represents a church faction led by its Patriarch who has given strong support to the invasion of Ukraine.

What has created a sense of moral indignation and huge disappointment from the Ukrainian communities abroad observing the painful conflict in their country of origin, and as faithful Christians observing the Julian calendar, is their April 24 Easter, leaving them bereft and abandoned in their church. While condemning the barbarity the Ukrainians are facing, Pope Francis avoids naming the aggressor country and its leader, a devout Orthodox Catholic, intransigent and malevolently violent against Ukraine.

Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, hearing of the Pope's Way of the Cross procession plan attempted to warn Francis it was poorly timed, incoherent, ambiguous and "even offensive" to his members, leading to the text being shortened, but the two women, signifying the two nations at peace, not war, remaining to hold the cross, hand over hand. 

 Moscow's Patriarch Kirill, has a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has enthusiastically endorsed Putin's war against Ukraine, as 'just' and needful. Russia's Orthodox Church clearly politically motivated, clearly eschewing its pastoral duties, and clearly unwilling to denounce an illegal, destructive conflict brought from his country to a neighbouring country. Patriarch Kirill, with whom Pope Francis fairly recently held a 'reconciliation', spoke of a righteous fight between Western decadence and traditional values, in support of the conflict.

 

Mychailo Wynnyckyj, sociology professor at Ukraine's National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was scathing in his condemnation of the Pope in effectively helping to perpetuate an injustice by saying nothing to offend Russia and Vladimir Putin. According to his assessment the Good Friday events were an effective "slap in the face to Ukrainians" in an outreach to Russian religious leaders involved in Putin's war against Ukraine.

Reminiscent of Pope Pius XII, whose lack of action during the Second World War and neutrality over the Holocaust the Vatican still defends. The Ukrainian Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox churches are in early discussions of a potential merger. It is now entirely possible that a unified church will no longer consider falling under the Catholic banner, for Pope Francis, according to Mr. Wynnyckyj has made "a massive step in the wrong direction".

Indigenous Guests at the Vatican

"We are in 2022 and our history is being stored and shown in other countries where nobody understands."

"These items, those artifacts ... those are ours. Those belong in our communities."

"They belong to people. They belong to generations."

Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier, retired chief, Okanese First Nation, Saskatchewan

Assembly of First Nations delegation lead Regional Chief Gerald Antoine says he hopes the delegation can forge a new relationship with Pope Francis and the Catholic Church after the visit to the Vatican   CBC

 

A delegation of Canadian Indigenous representatives travelled to Rome to meet with Pope Francis last week. While on the way they anticipated seeing pieces of their own history on display at the Anima Mundi Ethnological Museum in Vatican City. The museum has on display for the very few who may have access to its treasures, collections of Indigenous artifacts. Artifacts that, in fact, were collected, but possibly not ever before displayed publicly.

Chief Walker-Pelletier spoke of observing the objects in the museum, spurring thoughts of artifacts in her opinion, speaking truth to life, history and the communities of Indigenous people. She had strong feelings of the venerable artifacts reflecting her peoples' history being in the possession of the Vatican. She was part of the delegation as a former pupil within the residential school system, most of which were operated by groups within the Roman Catholic Church in Canada.

In her opinion, if the Roman Catholic Church is committed, as it says it is, to truth and reconciliation, it would divest itself of Indigenous-Canadian artifacts, returning them to those for whom it has personal meaning and in whose possession they would be honoured, placed on public display and used as teaching materials, as proud symbols of the past.

"That's one of the things the Pope needs to look at, how does he reconcile and bring back the artifacts", she said. According to Indigenous curators and experts, they have been unsuccessful in obtaining access to objects, unknown in quantity, held in the possession of the Church. The Vatican's collection began at the behest of a pope who had planned on holding a world exposition in 1925.

In preparation for that event, a message was sent out to missionaries around the globe with instructions to collect and send aboriginal cultural and religious items to the Vatican. A request that resulted in over 100,000 objects and works of art being sent to the Vatican for display during that exposition, and held by the Vatican ever since. The Pope in 2019 planned on placing many more objects on display, those of Indigenous people among them. 

Last year the Inuvialuit Regional Corp. requested that a rare kayak made by Inuvialuit be returned to them. Embroidered gloves from a Cree community, a baby belt from a Gwich'in community, moccasins from British Columbia, masks, wampum belts, pipes and rugs were all on display for the visiting Indigenous people. 

 

Originally, such heritage objects were removed from Indigenous hands when the Canadian government outlawed cultural practices in 1875, through the Indian Act. Ceremonial objects along with other items of cultural importance were seized, sold, given to museums, or destroyed.

 

 Pope Francis welcomed a delegation of Canada's First Nations to the Vatican. They asked to revoke centuries-old papal decrees used to justify the seizure of Indigenous lands in the Americas by colonial powers. (Vatican Media/Catholic Press Photo)

Decapitating Statues of Historical Figures

Address snapshot ... Pope Francis

"[Beware] a form of ideological colonization, one that leaves no room for freedom of expression and is now taking the form of the 'cancel culture' invading many circles and public institutions."

"This view of history risks cancelling identity under the guise of defending diversity. [Representing a type of] one-track thinking [taking shape and developing fully as constraining or denial of history; rewriting it in terms of present-day sensibilities]."

"[Some attitudes] leave no room for freedom of expression and are now taking the form of the 'cancel culture'. Under the guise of defending diversity, it ends up cancelling all sense of identity, with the risk of silencing positions."

"As a result, agendas are increasingly dictated by a mindset that rejects the natural foundations of humanity and the cultural roots that constitute the identity of many people."

"Diplomacy is called to be truly inclusive, not canceling but cherishing the differences and sensibilities that have historically marked various peoples."

"What is needed instead is a recovery of our sense of shared identity as a single human family. [The] alternative can only be growing isolation."

Pope Francis

Cancel culture, the darling methodology of silencing voices that progressives in their culture of 'wokeism' infiltrating all facets of human communication, has many newly emerging critics, none of whom voice concerns from the pulpit of the progressives, but from within society's conservatives and none is more conservative that traditionalists. More neutral sources that speak with indignation of the damning work of the progressives are historians along with individuals and groups who find themselves targeted for their 'controversial' positions, deemed so by progressives whose aim is silencing their critics.

 

A leaflet distributed at the Montreal protest described Sir John A. Macdonald as "a white supremacist who orchestrated the genocide of Indigenous peoples with the creation of the brutal residential schools system"

 

It is hardly surprising that the Catholic Pontiff now sees fit to add his voice to the growing chorus of condemnation of this pernicious, insulting and leftist insularity that rejects reality and history claiming it to reek of colonialism and 'white privilege' while elevating the victimhood issues of 'people of colour' and the socially and gender-deprived in traditional society. At a time when convention with respect to polarizing discrimination has turned in the opposite direction expressing remorse and conciliation.

Woke progressives accept nothing but abject admissions of present-day 'colonialists' that they are guilty of all the sins of their predecessors, presumably by historical inheritance. Unctuous salutations expressed in new language forms of address become compulsory as proof of deserved guilt and condemnation. The wronged will be forever wronged and deserve and expect to be elevated above the descendants of their former tormentors. Demands that society reinvent itself so that exceptional privileges be extended to 'victims' satisfy vengeance-drooling accusers.

 

Damned white society is slowly picking itself up, recalling that dignity must be apportioned to all, even themselves and now question the veracity of claims of victimhood, asking when endless reproaches will come to an end and all people be enabled to live together as individuals no longer divided into groups of 'the guilty' and 'the victims'. The voice of Catholic Christianity speaks from a fear of marginalization, the accumulating loss of faith and worship, the incidentalism of religion, and the relegation of 'Christmas' to mere 'holiday' status. 

 

A statue of Jefferson Davis in Richmond, Va .Credit...@Thicketoftrash, via Associated Press

The re-write of history pivots from Holocaust denial and trivialization of resurgent anti-Semitism as just desserts in a puzzling portrayal of Jews as oriental 'others' while classifying them as part of the subset of 'white privileged' colonialists. Figures of European and North American history with its interminable conflicts and its subjugation of less-'developed' nations, to secure their valuable natural resources, including the enslavement of aboriginals and indiginals, and trading in Black slaves for forced labour is the only history recognized by the woke. Those instrumental in maintaining white supremacy must no longer be regarded as part of history, but trashed.

At the Vatican, Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin expressed his concern with a draft European Union communications manual playing with the suggestion of excising the long-venerated term Christmas, and presumably with that, the very Christian religion itself in an increasingly less religious continent. Who best to speak to diplomats assembled at the Vatican, representing 163 nations of the world than a Catholic Pontiff whose authority as god's spokesman on Earth still resonates?

And so, he spoke of historical situations that must logically be viewed and interpreted in the context of their times, not by the standards of the present day, for this is history that must be unadulterated to suit the surly moods of its new critics, and presented as time and tide viewed all  human interactions when and where they occurred and to whom they referred and whose circumstances they affected; not through the lens of today's critics.

Pictured: Pope Francis warned against attempts to cancel culture, decrying 'one-track thinking' which he said attempts to deny or rewrite history according to today's standards

 

The Cranky Pope

Hard on the heels of the explosive and exploding incidences of women revealing for the first time the identities of their sexual abusers, a phenomenon of unveiling a dark hidden secret of many men in positions of power and influence using their positions to prey on women whose careers they are capable of advancing or retarding, a public figure of immense authority has stepped into the fray, and in all likelihood not by intention but through a momentary irascible backlash flash of irritation.

"The day they bring me proof against Bishop Barros, I'll speak."
"There is not one shred of proof against him. It's all calumny. Is that clear?"
Pope Francis, Santiago, Chile

Pope Francis has accused victims of Chile’s most notorious paedophile of slander, in an astonishing end to a visit meant to help heal the wounds of a sex abuse scandal that has cost the Catholic church its credibility in the country. The Guardian

"As if I could have taken a selfie or a photo while Karadima abused me and others and Juan Barros stood by watching it all."
"These people are truly crazy, and the pontiff talks about atonement to the victims. Nothing has changed, and his plea for forgiveness is empty."
Juan Carlos Cruz, accuser

"[It is] sad and wrong [for the Pope to discredit the victims since] the burden of proof here rests with the church, not the victims -- and especially not with victims whose veracity has already been affirmed."
"He has just turned back the clock to the darkest days of this crisis. Who knows how many victims now will decide to stay hidden, for fear they will not be believed?"
Anne Barrett Doyle, online database BishopAccountability.org

Pope Francis, pressed for a comment by a Chilean journalist with respect to the status of Bishop Juan Barros whom he had named bishop of the southern diocese of Osorno in Chile at a time when victims of Barros's superior, the Rev.Fernando Karadima were accusing him of rampant sexual crimes, snapped back with the response that made it quite clear he failed to believe the accusations of the victims that Bishop Barros knew, and had even witnessed that abuse.

In one fell swoop not only turning asunder his main thrust of address in travelling to Chile with the purpose of apologizing for the horrendous misdeeds of the Catholic Church when its priests pledged to celibacy chose to pursue other avenues of satisfying their sexual desires by targeting children and parishioners for abuse. It was always widely recognized that these events took place, and that superiors within the Church sought to keep the scandal within the church, never admitting it took place, simply transferring the offending priest to another parish to repeat his sins anew.

In effect, this is what the Pontiff himself has done, irrespective of his sincere apology on behalf of the Catholic Church. Loyal Catholics who had been abused had attempted for years to apprise the church hierarchy of what was occurring only to hit a blank wall of indifference and disbelief. Sexual abuse and the cover up of the church is legendary. The Archbishop of Santiago eventually apologized for refusing to believe victims once they spread their stories at large and they became news of shocking importance.

Yet knowing that the victims' stories had been substantiated, Pope Francis still chose to believe that the man he named as Bishop, a former Karadima protege, could honourable and in good faith be accepted by the Osorno community as their church authority, in so doing repeating the very routine the church always engaged in when confronted by such abuse. As far as the Osorno controversy was concerned where people refused to consider Bishop Barros as their bishop, Pope Francis spoke of the controversy as "stupid".

This, from a man claiming himself to be dedicated to serving the people, not the classical indulgences of the church hierarchy. "Isn't the pastoral problem that we're living (in Osorno) enough to get rid of him?" asked Juan Carlos Claret, spokesman for a group of Osorno lay Catholics whose three-year campaign against Barros no doubt added to the Pope's rejection of the claims by parishioners that they could not respect an insider who had stood by and done nothing to help stop the abuse.

This is the church establishment which has vowed to do penance for the past, for having accused victims of slandering and attacking the church with unsubstantiated claims. And which Pope Francis set out to reverse, assuring Catholics that the church had much to apologize for and he was the man to assuage the wounds. Instead, he has chosen to open a new wound by the expedience of reverting to the former stance of the church, accusing the accusers.

A "tremendous error" in judgement by the Pope, according to to German Silva, political scientist at Universidad Mayor in Santiago, that will reverberate in Chile and beyond.

Misunderstanding Islam

"It is true that the idea of conquest is inherent in the soul of Islam. However, it is also possible to interpret the objective in Matthew’s Gospel, where Jesus sends his disciples to all nations, in terms of the same idea of conquest."
"May all of our brothers and sisters on this continent, like the good Samaritan, come to your [Syrian refugees and migrants on the island of Lesbos] aid in the spirit of fraternity, solidarity and respect for human dignity."
"Yes, Europe has Christian roots and it is Christianity’s responsibility to water those roots. [But] this must be done in a spirit of service [not ultra-nationalism]." 
"When I hear talk of the Christian roots of Europe, I sometimes dread the tone, which can seem triumphalist or even vengeful. It then takes on colonialist overtones."
"In Brussels, the terrorists were Belgians, children of migrants, but they grew up in a ghetto. In London, the new mayor took his oath of office in a cathedral and will undoubtedly meet the Queen. This illustrates the need for Europe to rediscover its capacity to integrate."
"I don’t like to talk about Islamic violence, because every day, when I read the newspaper, I see violence."
"When fundamentalism goes as far as murdering … you can murder with your tongue and also with the knife."
"I believe that it’s not fair to identify Islam with violence. It’s not fair and it’s not true. I know how they think. They look for peace, encounter."
"[European youth, many have been left] with no ideals, no work, that end in the hands of drugs and alcohol, and then go over there [abroad] and enlist."
"It’s a fundamentalist group that calls itself ISIS, but it can’t be said, it’s not true, and it’s not fair, that Islam is terrorist."
"As long as the god of money is at the center of the global economy and not the human person, man and woman, this is the first terrorism. [A] terrorism at the bases [against the whole of humanity]…."
Pope Francis 

Swiss Guards salute Pope Francis as he arrives for the opening session of the CEI, Italian Episcopal Conference, at the Vatican on May 16. (Alessandra Tarantino/AP)

"[Pope Francis is] a man of peace[and] a man who respects other religions and shows consideration for their followers."
"Here I would like to say that the issue must not be presented as persecution of Christians in the East, but on the contrary there are more Muslim than Christian victims, and we all suffer this catastrophe together."
Sheik Ahmed el-Tayyib, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque

Sheik Ahmed el-Tayyib, right, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque, shakes hands with Pope Francis during a private audience in the Apostolic Palace, at the Vatican, Monday, May 23, 2016. (L'Osservatore Romano/Pool photo via AP)

Could we have it on greater authority that Islam is a religion of peace, a religion greatly misunderstood by those not of the faith but who have observed that Islam is the fount of terrorism that impacts the globe, from the Middle East to Asia, Africa to Europe, North America to Oceania? Islamist terror has inflicted itself through the fundamental call of Islam to its faithful, reminding them of their obligation to jihad, as pressing an obligation as is surrender to Islam since it represents a major tenet of the faith.

It is understood, needless to say, that within the Muslim world itself, there are countless victims of violence. Islam is not only at war with the world of non-Muslims for the affront they represent to Islam of refusing to accept that Allah is the only and absolute ruler of the universe and the world we inhabit, but Muslims adhering to the wrong sect of Islam, like the Ahmadiyya considered heretic and an offense to Allah are persecuted as well. Does that exonerate Islam?

None of which points to Islam as a religion of peace. Attacks against Westerners, against infidels, Jews and Christians, Hindus and Buddhists -- all of which predated Islam as world religions -- take place because daily prayers in most mosques wherever they are located across the world conclude with an imprecation against unbelievers, and Muslims are enjoined by their imams and mullahs to take up jihad in the name of the Prophet Mohammad who showed them the way to conquest.

Whereas Pope Francis's predecessor, Pope Benedict ventured into the minefield of Islam's violent roots of conquest, Pope Francis has chosen to sidestep the issue, and in fact, to deny that Islam is a violent religion based on conquest meant to destroy all other religions, to finally see Islam in complete and totalitarian theistic domination of the globe. His placatory denials, refusals to utter such damning phrases as "Islamic terrorism" or "violent jihad", linking Islam with the cult of violence and death betray him as either naive or clueless or devious.

Citing the vital necessity of religious tolerance and to emphaze what Christianity and Islam have in common is to play a game of submission to a fantasy which world events amply demonstrate is false. The commonly heard "Allahu Akbar" signals an intent to embark upon a venture that is geared to cause vicious harm to purported enemies of Islam who must pay with their lives for conspiring to defy the Prophet's declaration that the world must surrender to his 'one true god' whom he created out of the writing of the Old Testament of Judaism.

There is a metaphor at play here, and a very troubling one, of a Christendom that has faltered, one that the faithful have abandoned, one where in a French church a priest of aged repute set out to conduct mass to a sparse audience of five elderly faithful; two parishioners, three nuns, and himself. This is a church in undeniable decline, though it counts among its faithful the largest demographic worldwide, active now in the developing world, in its death throes in Europe.

And into Europe has come a deluge of Muslims carrying Islam with them in a different kind of jihad, the one of patience and demographics, the second most-populous religion in the world and the only one that is on a steady growth trajectory. A wizened old priest murdered by two young Frenchmen of Islamic origin obeying the call to jihad, in service to Islamic State whose grasping tentacles have re-invigorated jihad and enlisted the interest of young jihadists across the globe.

Yet Pope Francis declares that it is not religion, and certainly not Islam, the religion of peace that motivates these ardent martyrs-in-waiting, but the wretched effects of an underclass, a poverty-stricken world of benighted ignorance which those capitalists whose wealth surpasses those of the countries the underprivileged come from to flood Europe and North America, that is at fault. A fault that dialogue and interfaith communalism can correct.

We must, in the face of Islamist exceptionalism and its inexorably entitled drive to violent conquest, exhibit compassion and understanding, not defence, and the unforgivable denial of the peaceful nature of Islam.

Is the Pope Ending Catholic Anti-Semitism? by Susan Warner September 29, 2015 at 4:00 am http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6596/pope-francis-antisemitism "Nostre Aetate," released in 1965, called for friendship and dialogue between Catholics and Jews, instead of the centuries-long repudiation of Jews by Catholics; St Joseph's University became the first to respond by establishing the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations. Is Pope Francis picking up where Pope Paul VI left off? Can Pope Francis' hopes and dreams for reconciliation of Catholics and Jews override some unfortunate but pressing realities, such the Church's desire to placate the Palestinians? If Pope Francis is serious about a "journey of friendship" with the Jewish people, perhaps he would not be so quick to approve President Obama's Iran nuclear deal in the name of a hoped-for peace that will most certainly ignite an unhoped-for war between Iran and Israel. By assisting the UN in establishing the "sustainable development platform," the Pope is offering his permission to the UN -- one of the most anti-Semitic, anti-Israel bodies on the face of the earth -- to usurp power on behalf of a shared utopian agenda. Sustainable development notwithstanding, the UN should be encouraged to clean up its own house before it tries to clean up the world. A lot of water as passed under the bridge between Catholics and Jews in the past 1800 years or so. Most of it has been polluted by the evils of anti-Semitism perpetrated by the Catholic Church against the Jews of Europe, starting with the earliest published Christian writings by the early ante-Nicene Church Fathers, such as Tertullian. His document "Judeos Adversos" has stood for centuries as one of the key church position papers against the Jews. During those seemingly endless centuries, the Catholic Church continuously demonized the Jews, stripped them of their livelihoods, and frequently their lives. In the Catholic mindset, the Covenant that God made with the Jews had been replaced by the Church as God's new "chosen people."[1] God no longer had any use for the Jews, and the Church vowed never to let them forget it. Then in 1965, under the leadership of Pope Paul VI, the document "Nostre Aetate" was presented to the world as part of an overhaul of the Catholic Church known as the Second Vatican Council, or more popularly, Vatican II. "Nostre Aetate" was one of the most significant documents to emerge from the period. Designed to heal the relationship between the Catholics and the Jews, it was to be a total reset of the Catholic-Jewish relationship -- at least on paper. "Nostra Aetate, the 1965 Declaration on the Church's Relationship to Non-Christian Religions was one of the most influential and celebrated documents issued by the Second Vatican Council, a gathering of the world's Catholic bishops. In particular it made possible a new and positive relationship between Jews and Catholics."[2] Since the thirteenth century, one prominent symbol pointing to the Catholic animus against the Jews was a sculpture entitled "Ecclesia et Synagoga." The original version of this allegorical stone sculpture was carved for the Gothic Cathedral in Strasbourg, France. It consists of two elegant female figures, one representing a victorious Church, "Ecclesia," and the other representing the defeated Jew, "Synagoga." Replicated hundreds of times in the famed Gothic cathedrals of Europe, the sculpture presented the figure of Synagoga sometimes blindfolded, representing the Jews as "spiritually blind." Some sculptures and murals depicted Synagoga with a fallen crown and a broken scepter, with a severed goat's head or with a demon -- all allegorically representing the vanquished Jews. In all of its sordid variations, the image was revered as an honored visual symbol of the understanding of the relationship between triumphant Christianity and defeated Judaism. The two figures symbolized the Catholic Church's theological position, often called "supersessionism" or "replacement theology." According to this theology, the Church has replaced the Jews in God's view and is now to be celebrated as "the New Israel." The same theology exists in the Catholic Church today.[3] After 1965, "Nostre Aetate" provided Catholics with a new opportunity to rethink the worthiness of an ancient theology that bolstered animosity between the two groups. At last, the Catholic Church acknowledged the biblical role of Jewish thought in human history: "The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament through the people with whom God in His inexpressible mercy concluded the Ancient Covenant. Nor can she forget that she draws sustenance from the root of that well-cultivated olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild shoots, the Gentiles. Indeed, the Church believes that by His cross Christ, Our Peace, reconciled Jews and Gentiles. making both one in Himself. [4] Pope Francis this week dedicated a new version of this ancient sculpture, which now installed at St. Joseph's University, in the plaza near the University Chapel. "Ecclesia et Synagoga": The original 13th century sculptures from the Strasbourg Cathedral (left), and a recent example from St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia (right) that Pope Francis blessed this week. According to Phillip A. Cunningham, Director of the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations at St. Joseph's University: The new sculpture employs Synagoga and Ecclesia rendered with nobility and grace, to bring to life the words of Pope Francis: "Dialogue and friendship with the Jewish people are part of the life of Jesus' disciples. There exists between us a rich complementarity that allows us to read the texts of the Hebrew Scriptures together and to help one another mine the riches of God's word." The work will depict the figures enjoying studying each other's sacred texts together. When "Nostre Aetate" was released in 1965, it called for friendship and dialogue between Catholics and Jews, instead of the centuries-long repudiation of Jews by Catholics; St Joseph's University became the first to respond by establishing the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations and now, five decades later, commissioning the memorial sculpture by Philadelphia artist Joshua Koffman, and hosting the Pope for this remarkable event. Hundreds of Jews and Catholics from around the region assembled to hear the Pope speak. Rabbi Abraham Skorka, Pope Francis' close friend, came from Argentina to speak at the dedication ceremony. Event co-sponsors gathered from Philadelphia's Catholic and Jewish organizations: The archdiocese of Philadelphia; the World Meeting of Families; American Jewish Committee; The Greater Philadelphia Board of Rabbis; Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and the Anti-Defamation League. The new sculpture "will vividly convey what Pope Francis has called the 'journey of friendship' that Jews and Catholics have experienced in the past five decades," says professor and Institute Assistant Director Adam Gregerman. "We are looking forward to area Jews and Catholics coming together to celebrate the remarkable rapprochement that is occurring." Are we actually realizing the moment when the end of Catholic anti-Semitism shall finally be realized? Is this reality in line with Pope Paul VI's dream of "Nostre Aetate?" Is Pope Francis picking up where Pope Paul VI left off? The question lingers: Can Pope Francis' hopes and dreams for reconciliation of Catholics and Jews override some unfortunate but pressing realities, such the Church's desire to placate the Palestinians? At least four trouble spots need to be addressed before the Pope can complete his sought-after "journey of friendship" between Jews and Catholics: 1. The first squeamish issue is the universality of the current Catholic teaching of supersessionism or "replacement theology." If the Catholic Church is still claiming to be "The New Israel," there is no room on the planet for a Jewish Israel. Under this unfortunate and false teaching, the Jewish people, the Jewish religion and the Jewish nation are only valid if the Jews convert to Catholicism.[5] 2. If Pope Francis is serious about a "journey of friendship" with the Jewish people, perhaps he would not be so quick to approve President Obama's Iran nuclear deal in the name of a hoped-for peace that will most certainly ignite an unhoped-for war between Iranian proxies, Iran and Israel. 3. By prematurely, preemptively and unilaterally recognizing Palestine as a state, he selected some very unfortunate timing -- on the anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence, called Nakba Day ["Catastrophe Day"] by Palestinians -- for his attempt to destroy and supplant the Jewish state. This was a theft of Israel's hopes for a legitimate negotiated peace settlement and an insult to Israel in the international arena. The Pope robbed Israel of a vital negotiating position. He robbed them of their international standing, and gave the Palestinians another legitimate pathway to act on their vow to destroy Israel. As one of the most prestigious leaders in the world, the Pope's unilateral action was a kick in the teeth for Israel and hardly the "journey of friendship" he claims to desire. 4. By collaborating with -- and even assisting -- the United Nations in establishing the "sustainable development platform," the Pope is freely offering his permission to the UN -- one of the most anti-Semitic, anti-Israel bodies on the face of the earth -- to usurp power on behalf of a shared utopian agenda. "Sustainable development" notwithstanding, the United Nations should be encouraged to clean up its own house before it tries to clean up the world. Pope Francis has been in his office only since 2013. During this short time, he has managed to straddle both sides of a very dangerous divide -- between the Jews and Israel on one side and on the other, their Islamist neighbor nations that daily vow to annihilate all Jews along with their state. For an average person, this might seem less like a "journey of friendship" and more like a pathway to war. Susan Warner is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of Gatestone Institute and co-founder of a Christian group, Olive Tree Ministries in Wilmington, DE, USA. She has been writing and teaching about Israel and the Middle East for over 15 years. Contact her at israelolivetree@yahoo.com. [1] The actual quote from the conclusion of a teaching from "The Church = The New Israel": "So to sum up, the Catholic Church is the Kingdom of God on earth, the new Israel (Jesus said in Matthew 21:43 that he was taking the Kingdom away from Israel, and giving it to a nation that will produce the fruits of it - namely, the Catholic Church), and is modeled after David's Kingdom, with a huge temple (the Vatican), a prime minister (our Pope), a sacred tabernacle containing the Ark of the Covenant (our tabernacle containing the Eucharist), officers who take care of the kingdom (our Cardinals and bishops), high priests (our priests), a Passover Meal (our Eucharist), and a Queen Mother (The Blessed Virgin Mary)." [2] This document was published expressly as an education device to the study of the 50th Anniversary of Nostre Aetate by the Council of Centers on Jewish Christian Relations. [3] This quote is from a current teaching from "The Catholic Knight" but is available from many other sources. "Where does this put the Church in relation to the rest of the Jewish people? Simply put, we (the Church) are Zion! We are Israel! That is what it explicitly says in the New Testament and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. To become complete as a Jew is no different than what it takes to become complete as a Gentile. We all must be "grafted in" to Israel - which is The Catholic Church!" [4] From the original Nostre Aetate document section 4. [5] Nostre Aetate was intended to soften the harsh reality of supersessionism or replacement theology in the Catholic Church, which was the cornerstone of Catholic anti-Semitism. However, a simple internet search of today's Catholic teachings brings up numerous resources that perpetuate this false idea that was generated by the early Church fathers and became part of the founding documents under the Emperor Constantine in 325 CE. Sometimes the concept is quite blatant and sometimes it is subtle, but the idea of the Catholic Church as the "New Israel" is ubiquitous.

Say After Me ....

"The misuse and destruction of the environment are also accompanied by a relentless process of exclusion. A selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity leads both to the misuse of available natural resources and to the exclusion of the weak and disadvantaged."
"Any harm done to the environment, therefore is harm done to humanity. The ecological crisis, and the large-scale destruction of biodiversity, can threaten the very existence of the human species."
"Consequently, the defence of the environment and the fight against exclusion demand that we recognize a moral law written into human nature itself."
Pope Francis, United Nations

Pope Francis urged world leaders to care for the planet and the world’s poorest people. Later, the General Assembly adopted 17 goals, which extend through 2030. Credit Todd Heisler/The New York Times

"There may be some kind of inconsistency here between what the Pope has said and what the church is doing in U .S. oil and gas country."
"[As the church acquires mineral rights through parishioner donation there might be] legal or fiduciary reasons] to lease them out."
Mickey Thompson, consultant, former director, Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association

 In June, Pope Francis circulated among his faithful an encyclical pointing out the need to phase out highly-polluting fossil fuels in the battle against climate change, which is incumbent upon all, as an obligatory moral duty. Perhaps his visit to the United States has been calculated to remind his American dioceses that they have a duty to heed his papal words of direction.

In the archdiocese of Oklahoma City three new oil and gas leases have been signed by church officials in the wake of Francis's missive on the environment. Although they are not forbidden from investing in the energy industry, guidelines on ethical investing from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops warn Catholic institutions against investing in those companies stained by abortion, contraception, pornography, tobacco and war.

While failing to specifically address the ownership of energy-production interests. In a review of country documents Reuters discovered 235 oil and gas leasing deals which had been signed by Catholic Church authorities in Texas and Oklahoma with energy and land companies since 2010 in 56 counties inside the two states, though none of the Texas leases had been signed after the Pope's encyclical.

A boom in American energy production in recent years, most notably through the controversial hydraulic fracturing production method known as fracking has seen those states at the forefront of undersigning deals. Church authorities gain royalties ranging from 15 to 25 percent on the value of petroleum extraction. The church acquires its mineral rights via the medium of parishioner donations, most often.

An United States Conference of Catholic Bishops official declined comment to a Reuters interviewer, understandably. While the Vatican has no direct power over U.S. church investment decisions, their diocesan bishops do. And it is the bishops who are answerable to the higher order of the Vatican. And there is none higher in that executive theological power structure than the Pope, quite obviously.

Creating a deep moral dissonance in the wake of the Pope's clear attack on human-caused climate change. Dioceses granting oil leases in recent years include Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio. A spokesman for the Diocese of Fort Worth stated that the diocese received $31,661 from its leases in 2015, declining to affirm whether consideration was given by the diocese for a review of its program in reflection of the Pope's encyclical.

About a quarter of the roughly 165 church lease deals signed since 2010 were granted by the archdiocese of Oklahoma City and most of the rest granted through the Catholic Foundation of Oklahoma and the St. Gregory's Catholic University of Oklahoma. The lease royalties don't seem all that compellingly rich, enough so to influence such questionable investments that come at the cost of moral iniquity.

Leading to the question, is the Catholic Church in the U.S. so fiscally challenged that it is prepared to degrade its moral imperatives as designated by the Shepherd of Rome?

The Vatican Facilitating Peace

"This move does not promote the peace process and distances the Palestinian leadership from returning to direct and bilateral negotiations."
Israeli Foreign Ministry

"Yes, it's a recognition that the state exists."
Reverend Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman

"We appreciate that the Vatican's basic intention is to promote Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation, but believe that this diplomatic recognition will be unhelpful to that end."
"[The treaty is] counterproductive to all who seek true peace between Israel and the Palestinians."
Abraham Foxman, The American Jewish Committee

"This is a very important recognition as the Vatican has a very important political status that stems from its spiritual status."
"We expect more EU countries to follow."
Nabil Shaath, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas senior aide

In this May 25, 2014 file photo, Pope Francis is welcomed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas upon his arrival to the West Bank city of Bethlehem. (Photo: AP)

Official recognition of the "state of Palestine" is now affirmed by the Vatican through a treaty concerning the actions of the Catholic Church in Palestinian territory. The Palestine Liberation Organization, which is what Fatah, the leading Palestinian political party that now governs the West Bank through the Palestinian Authority, was given official diplomatic standing with the Vatican. And now that diplomacy has given recognition to a Palestinian 'state'.

Pope Frances appears to be ignoring history and reality in that early 20th Century Palestinians were originally Jews living in "Palestine", which was originally part of Judea. The name Palestine is attributed to Herodotus in the 5th Century B.C.; there were no Arabs living there originally, and Arabs have been relative late-comers to Palestine; Arabs from Egypt and Jordan co-opted the name as their own for historical legitimacy.

In Israel, all religions and all ethnic groups have rights and protection. In the Palestinian Territories Christians are persecuted and loathed, intimidated and threatened. Jews present there must be given armed protection by the military. Pope Frances must obviously have his own reasons for the decision he has made to legitimize the 'state of Palestine'. As a man of peace, it is rather surprising that he has failed to cite the need for Palestinians to recognize the State of Israel as a precursor to living side by side with it, as another state.

It appears that the Vatican is prepared to 'go along to get along', having welcomed the United Nations General Assembly's decision in 2012 to recognize a Palestinian state. It chose since then to refer to the 'state of Palestine'. But the treaty now negotiated between the Holy See and the 'Palestinian state' gives official recognition by the Vatican in exchange for what? a guarantee that Christians will henceforth be respected and sheltered and given equal status in the new state?

This revelation is most certainly a victory for Mahmud Abbas, set to visit the Vatican. Bearing in mind the Pope will be welcoming a president of the PA who has overstayed his welcome, his status not now one of a duly elected parliamentarian given a long-overdue election has not been called to validate him as president, as the choice of the Palestinian people. Should such an election be called it is questionable whether he would remain president, since a majority of Palestinians support Hamas.

Is Pope Frances prepared to welcome the Hamas leadership to the Vatican? Does he, as head of the Roman Catholic Church feel that engaging in treaties with a terrorist organization whose mandate is quite specific in promising to destroy Israel does justice to the Holy See's message of universal love and peace?

The 2012 UN vote in recognition of Palestine as a non-member observer state comprising the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, represents in their entirety land that Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. This was one of the many wars that were imposed upon Israel, with collective Arab armies marching with the intention of destroying the State of Israel.

What other country of the world would be expected by the international community to surrender land it captured that historically formed part of its original existence, which it had defended from surrounding states determined to eradicate it from the geography? Would Russia accede to such a notion, or Pakistan?

Speaking Truth From Power

"[Catholics must heed the] muffled and forgotten cry of so many of our defenceless brothers and sisters who, on account of their faith in Christ or their ethnic origin, are publicly and ruthlessly put to death -- decapitated, crucified, burned alive -- or forced to leave their homeland."
"It seems that the human family has refused to learn from its mistakes caused by the law of terror, so that today too there are those who attempt to eliminate others with the help of a few and with the complicit silence of others who simply stand by."
Pope Francis, The Holy See

Aram I (C), head of the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia speaks with Pope Francis during an Armenian-Rite Mass marking 100 years since the mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, yesterday at St Peter’s basilica in Vatican.  — AFP

"He is living dangerously."
"He certainly puts himself in vulnerable positions where he knows that he is making enemies."
"It's consistent with the man's style."
Ronald Boisvert, chair of religion, Concordia University

"The Pope's statement, which is out of touch with both historical facts and legal basis, is simply unacceptable."
"Religious offices are not places through which hatred and animosity are fuelled by unfounded allegations."
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu

At a time when Christianity globally is under siege by the virulent hatred directed at Infidels, Jews and any target that is not Islamic, but they too, Christians have seen their churches destroyed, their sacred objects of veneration defaced and desecrated, while they have been attacked and many killed in an ongoing onslaught by Islamist jihadists waging a global war. And then, of course, there are more elderly such events of historical proportions.

Armenia is noted as the first nation historically to take official steps to adopt Christianity as a state religion. Although it is the Roman Empire that is often spoken of as having transformed itself into a Christian empire when Constantine the Great was influenced by his mother Helena's adoption of Christianity, it was Armenia which in AD301 predated Rome's move to Christianity close to a century earlier.

Pope Francis has now entered the controversy over what he has accurately enough termed "the first genocide of the 20th Century", speaking of the calculated means taken to attempt to exterminate a race of people. At a Vatican mass on Sunday marking the centenary of the Ottoman Empire's vicious campaign against the Armenians, Pope Francis urged other world leaders to recognize the slaughter of Armenians as genocide. Stepping on excitable Turkish toes to become a mass movement.

The Pope made it clear that a failure to speak of the horror that took place against the Armenians in language that clearly and unequivocally describes it for what it represented, sets the stage for other such atrocities to take place, because of the lack of full consequences and the shame it should bring to any civilized country. Turkey has always denied any such description, vehemently insisting that the death of a million-ad-a-half Armenians was simply a consequence of the fallout of war.

"By drawing attention to [the Armenian genocide], I think Francis is underlying that broader concern he has that Christians all over the world today, and in the past, are suffering for their faith. I think he's doing this quite deliberately. ... He's not just shooting off at the mouth. I think that he realizes that he can use the media to promote things that are close to his heart", explained Richard Rymarz, professor of Catholic religious education, St. Joseph's College, University of Alberta.

The persecution of Christians, like the recent murders by an Islamic State branch in Libya of Egyptian Copts, and the slaughter by Al-Shabab of Christian students at dormitories of a college in Kenya, the hollowing out of the ancient Christian presence in Iraq, in Syria, in the Palestinian Territories and elsewhere throughout the Middle East and Africa has made it imperative that someone of the singular stature of Pope Francis speak out without equivocation.

In the presence of Serzh Sargsyan, president of Armenia, who praised the Pope for "calling things by their names", the remarks declared in a mass in the Armenian rite at St. Peter's Basilica, represented a first in Christianity formally and officially striking back against its persecutors. It is predictable that Turkey would be enraged by this very notable and ringing denunciation of an old wound that is now seeing its renascence.

Turkey's embassy to the Vatican cancelled a news conference. In Ankara, diplomats sternly summoned the Vatican ambassador to express their displeasure, releasing a statement that expressed "great disappointment and sadness". In 1948, freshly grappling with the reality of a more recent genocide, the United Nations defined genocide as killing and acts intended to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

Such deliberate pathological acts of hatred represent a "great disappointment and sadness" in the degraded depths that human nature can be led to commit to.

Pope Francis stated that the Armenian slaughter represented the first of three "massive and unprecedented" genocides last of the 20th Century, followed by the Nazi Final Solution leading to the Holocaust and by the massive killing machine of  Stalinism. He made mention of other mass killings that had followed: Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi and Bosnia.

Denial is a specialty of arrogant bullies quick to condemn others who have the gall to point to their acts of brutality requiring accountability. The Turks in the Ottoman Empire ruling over the Islamic ummah was well known for their cruelty, even among Arabs whom they also targeted and who were no slouches themselves in fearsome cruelty that seems to come naturally with the territory of tribal enmities and sectarian hatreds.

Lord High Caliph Erdogan

Known colloquially as a hot potato, one has landed in Pope Francis's reluctant lap. Echoes of his chastising the Catholic Church's bishops and archbishops when some among them have used church funds to aggrandize their positions within the church by building lavishly sumptuous palaces and his chiding that those who serve the church should live modestly and by example mirror Christ's adage that it is easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter heaven surfaces.

But of course, that is the god of Christian worship, not to be confused by the god of Islamic faith, who, though many claim to be one and the same, must not be, since as any Islamist will attest, Islam is the one true faith; all others pretenders. And in Turkey the long hiatus between the Ottoman Empire and the Ataturkian revolution that transformed Turkey into a secular state has come to a conclusion, courtesy of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

A latter-day reincarnation of the Prophet himself, he has groomed Turkey to acknowledge that he is worthy of his own caliphate, and he the caliph. A position that matches the dignity and honour of his position and his faith. To demonstrate all of which he took the extravagant initiative of having a palace of one thousand rooms of truly grand design built to honour him. This, an edifice to his power and his glory, is the welcome site for Pope Francis when he visits Turkey this month.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seen ahead of the welcoming ceremony within Turkish Republic Day celebrations on the 91st anniversary of foundation at Turkey's new Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey on October 29, 2014.   Getty Images

Where the Pope is planning to speak loudly and beseechingly on the threat of Islamist extremism and how it compromises the safety and security of Christianity in Muslim lands. That Christianity predated Islam and those lands were first Christian quite beside the point. The persecution of Christians in Syria and Iraq is foremost in the mind of the good Pope. With his three-day visit, Pope Francis appears to be on the cusp of achieving yet another of his many firsts; an invitation to the palace.

A palace which was just incidentally built over parkland that Kemal Ataturk, the architect of modern Turkey had bequeathed in perpetuity to the people of Turkey. A slight inconvenience which Mr. Erdogan had no problem overcoming simply by diktat and that, friends, was that. Just as his decision to turn a popular green space in Istanbul's Taksim Gezi Park into a shopping mall bred huge discontent among the populace and a protest movement that was muzzled by police action.

The $700-million cost of the White Palace though condemned by many Turks as a waste of money, is a reflection of the high regard in which President Erdogan is held, albeit mostly by himself, but his is the power and the glory and the corruption that he has drowned Turkey within reflects his untouchability. He is to Turkey what royalty and sacred theism combined represent, a latter-day ruler of divine provenance.

The suspense lies in the manner in which Pope Francis, himself the closest mankind has aspired to touching the hand of god, a man of repute and modesty taking the Vatican and the church in a new direction, eschewing pomp for the greater good of the Catholic weal, will manage to courteously extricate himself rather than conferring the illusion of godly blessing on the imprimatur of a political scoundrel practising to become a global caliph.

A picture shows the new Ak Saray presidential palace (White Palace) on the outskirts of Ankara on October 29, 2014. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unveiled his new presidential palace on the outskirts of Ankara, denounced by ecologists as an environmental blight and by the opposition as new evidence of his autocratic tendencies.  Getty Images

Praying For Peace

"I was not surprised because [in this part of the world] you take certain actions and there are always different interpretations."
"There was some difficulty [among the Israelis] in interpreting the positive side of his act."
Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman

Pope Francis touches the wall that divides Israel from the West Bank, on his way to celebrate a mass in Manger Square, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on May 25, 2014 Osservatore Romano—Reuters

The "act" was Pope Francis's spur-of-the-moment impulse to halt his motorcade at the separation wall, near Bethlehem. There, beside graffiti that read "Free Palestine", he rested his forehead in brief contemplative prayer for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Authentic Palestinians are those who lived on the land for multiple generations dating well back into timeless history, and they were Jews. Their descendants will never be permitted to return to their ancestral land.

The separation wall is there for a defined and quite necessary purpose. Before its erection Palestinian Arab incursions into Israel bent on suicide missions to martyr themselves for the greater glory of Islam were frequent occurrences. Once the separation wall had been installed, the suicide attacks came to a sudden halt. The presence of the wall has incurred practical hardships in the lives of ordinary Palestinians; the price they pay for their leadership inciting to violence.

Pope Francis's sincere wish to pay notice to Palestinian suffering is authentic and laudable to say the least, tugging at his humanitarian heart. Israeli authorities were angry at what they interpreted as a symbol of favouritism toward the Palestinian cause, which in all fairness it was. The Pope sees the need for a just and acceptable end to the constant tugs of war between the adversaries, a miserable stalemate that has gone on far too long.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prevailed upon Pope Francis, in his lightning-strike-swift Middle East trip, to also visit at the last moment, a memorial to Jewish victims of terrorism, and as a gesture to appease his hosts, and equally to pay his humble respects to the victims of violence, Pope Frances acceded. Which was when and where a verbal tug of war took place:

"Jesus was here, in this land. He spoke Hebrew", said the prime minister.

"Aramaic", corrected the pope.

"He spoke Aramaic, but he knew Hebrew", responded Mr. Netanyahu.

Both men were correct, according to biblical scholars, for while Christ's mother-tongue was Aramaic, he would have been exposed to the-then holy language of the Judaic sacred scriptures, Hebrew. Vatican officials, attempting to mediate the offence taken by Israel stressed that Pope Francis prayed for peace for the region in its entirety, a gesture not meant in its heartfelt sincerity to be taken as selective partisanship.


^{Pope Francis touches Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City (REUTERS)}
 
"I want to thank the Pope for accepting my request to visit this memorial", said Mr. Netanyahu. The wall, he commented, had saved "thousands of lives -- after it was set up, the terror stopped." Terrorism, the Pope said, after praying at the memorial, is "evil", and "fundamentally criminal". And, visiting the Yad Vashem memorial, he described the Holocaust as "a boundless tragedy".

_{Pope Francis lays a wreath in the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem}