Pope addresses Holocaust, Mideast conflict on Israel visit

[Ognir]

TEL AVIV, Israel (CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI started his visit to Israel on Monday by acknowledging the millions killed in the Holocaust and endorsing a two-state solution to the Palestinian conflict.

"I pray... that both peoples may live in peace in a homeland of their own, within secure and internationally recognized borders," the pontiff said at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv.

Benedict's address marked the start of his trip to the troubled region. He is scheduled to pay courtesy visits to Jerusalem's Muslim grand mufti and two chief rabbis.

The pope also addressed the Holocaust, an issue that sparked controversy for the Roman Catholic Church earlier this year.

"It is right and fitting that during my stay in Israel that I will have the opportunity to honor the memory of the 6 million Jewish victims of the Shoah," he said. "And to pray that humanity will never again witness a crime of such magnitude."

The pope said anti-Semitism is "totally unacceptable," reiterating remarks he made in February after a bishop disputed the death toll of Jews killed in concentration camps during World War II. VideoWatch why the pope's visit is proving controversial »

The Catholic Church is "profoundly and irrevocably committed to reject all anti-Semitism," he said at the time.

Benedict, who is on an eight-day trip to the Middle East, returns to Rome on Friday.

His first stop in the region was in Jordan, where he called for greater respect for women at a historic Mass in Amman on Sunday.

In the 13-minute address, he urged Christians in the Middle East to persevere -- an acknowledgment that the Christian population has declined sharply in the past 50 years in the region where the religion was born. VideoWatch Jordan residents' reaction to the pope's visit »

He also called on the faithful to oppose terrorism through good examples.

Living a good Christian life "means bearing witness to the love which inspires us to lay own our lives in the service of others, and thus to counter ways of thinking which justify taking innocent lives," he said.

The pope encouraged dialogue among Christians of different denominations and people of other faiths and cultures.

Benedict's trip includes stops in Bethlehem and Nazareth -- places of unequaled religious resonance for the world's 1.1 billion Catholics.

"On one level, this is a deeply spiritual experience for Pope Benedict XVI... but an enormously high-stakes journey that has obvious political subtext," said John Allen, CNN's senior Vatican analyst.

"The pope will be facing not only the issues of Catholic-Jewish relations and Catholic-Muslim relations -- two faiths with which he's had his problems over the four years that he's been on the job -- but he'll also be wading right into the thick of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

It is the first papal visit to some of Christianity's most holy places since Pope John Paul II made the pilgrimage in 2000.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast ... index.html

[mgt23]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKTRE54A40O20090511

banal

[memory hole]

Nor was there an "expression of empathy with the sorrow."

get on your knees and beg these fucking Nazi Israel bastards you Jew tool.

Fuk 'em all.

FUckin anoyed and disgusted at this pretend religious figure.

bbc;

Pope Benedict XVI has said the suffering of Holocaust victims must never be denied as he visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.

"May the names of these victims never perish. May their suffering never be denied, belittled or forgotten," he said in the midst of survivors.

The pontiff began his trip to the Holy Land by saying in Tel Aviv that anti-Semitism was totally unacceptable.

I don't whom makes me more sick to my stomach the pope of the cunts at the BBC.

"Sadly, anti-Semitism continues to rear its ugly head in many parts of the world," he said as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres sat nearby.

if its anti-semetic to go against anything these two fucking criminal terrorists murdering scum say, then count me in.