Papal Nuncio to Israel-Palestine hopeful of peace in the Middle East

(17 Aug. 2006): “The mass for peace that Pope Benedict XVI called for in Lebanon and in Nazareth, Israel, was filled with “faith and ecumenical flavour”, said Archbishop Antonio Franco, the apostolic delegate to Israel and Palestine. The prelate said that the celebration held in Nazareth’s Basilica of the Annunciation brought together more than two thousand people. All the bishops of the Holy Land concelebrated the function. In addition to Anglican, Orthodox and Coptic prelates, Muslim leaders as well as a representative of Israel’s Interior Ministry attended the function. “Everyone still had fresh memories of the children killed in the bombing in the last few weeks, right here in Nazareth,” he said. “But there was also an atmosphere of joy because the mass coincided with the beginning of the cease-fire. Everyone is hoping that there might be light at the end of this tunnel of violence,” the prelate added.

During the mass in Arabic presided by Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem, the apostolic delegate stressed the Pope’s closeness to all the victims of the conflict. “During the month-long conflict, the Pope never stopped calling for peace, making at least two statements a week on the issue, urging the international community to act on behalf of peace,” Archbishop Franco told the faithful. In his homily, Patriarch Sabbah reminded the faithful of the Pontiff’s “sincere, obstinate, strong, clear and unequivocal voice” calling on all to recognise everyone’s rights, “from the right of the Lebanese to sovereignty and territorial integrity, to those of Israelis to security and those of Palestinians to a free and sovereign homeland.”