Some were saying that they did not remember any head of state being so welcomed in Israel. It was like passing the Lord through Israeli land. Certainly, many people recalled the history of salvation.
– The entire world watched as the Holy Father prayed at the Wailing Wall…
– It was a beautiful, again very symbolic gesture of the Holy Father. He privately prayed and then in the gap between the stones he left a piece of paper with a prayer. Just as the Jews do. He wrote, “We are deeply saddened by the behavior of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer, and asking your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant.” He has done this many times before, but never there, in the Holy Land.
Earlier in Bethlehem, the Pope kissed Palestinian land, visited a refugee camp and met with Jasir Arafat. During his welcome speech, he spoke to the Palestinian people that the Vatican had always recognized its natural right to their homeland and to live in peace and harmony with other nations in the region. Arafat awarded him the highest Palestinian award. At Tel Aviv Airport, Prime Minister Ehud Barak told John Paul II: “Be blessed in Israel.” It was at welcome. For goodbye, at the same airport, three children – Arab, Jewish and Christian child – gave him a piece of land to kiss. The Archbishop mentions that the Holy Father was very touched. As a gesture – a symbol of reconciliation and mutual love. He dreamed of praying together on Mount Sinai. He dreamed that this would happen in the Jubilee Year. (…) A month before the pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the Pope arrived in Egypt. There was no meeting between Christians, Muslims, and Jews on Mount Sinai.
With the permission of Archbishop Mieczysław Mokrzycki –“He liked Tuesdays the most”
M Publishing House, Krakow 2008
