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The Middle East may be the most hyper-sensitive piece of real estate on earth, where no more than a stray word or gesture can trigger an explosion. JERUSALEM (CNN) — The Middle East may be the most hyper-sensitive piece of real estate on earth, where no more than a stray word or gesture can trigger an explosion
Pope Benedict XVI visited Jerusalem’s holiest sites Tuesday, touring areas sacred to Muslims, Jews and Christians and stressing the common threads of the three faiths. After visiting the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine, the pontiff prayed at the Old City’s Western Wall. Also known as the Wailing Wall, it was once part of Judaism’s Second Temple, which was destroyed.
When Pope Benedict XVI touches down for his first papal visit in the United States next week, you may notice that he doesn’t have the same onstage flair as his predecessor, John Paul II. But you may also begin to notice a very handsome man of the cloth never far from the pontiff’s side. That would be Monsignor Georg Gänswein, the Pope’s personal secretary, responsible for everything from deciding who gets to see Benedict, to keeping His Holiness on schedule, to discreetly handing him his papal reading glasses just before a homily or other public discourse
Few question Pope Benedict XVI’s good will, nor the eloquence of his prose. But for the second time in three years, the Pope has delivered a highly anticipated discourse on the Holocaust that was moving but, by its silence on specific subjects, missed an opportunity of historic proportions. Welcomed at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial early Monday evening, Benedict spoke powerfully of the victims, and called on humanity never to forget the attempt to exterminate the Jews as a way “to ensure that hatred will never reign in the hearts of men again.” But, in a highly unusual criticism of an honored guest’s remarks, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, chairman of the Yad Vashem council, told Israeli television that though the speech was moving, “Something was missing.
As he arrives in Israel, the focus for Pope Benedict XVI shifts from Catholic/Muslim ties, which were at the heart of his three-day visit to Jordan, to relations with Judaism. TEL AVIV, Israel (CNN) — As he arrives in Israel, the focus for Pope Benedict XVI shifts from Catholic/Muslim ties, which were at the heart of his three-day visit to Jordan, to relations with Judaism. The pope comes to the Jewish state at a moment when Catholic/Jewish ties stand at a crossroads, in part related to broad historical and demographic trends, in part to the image of this particular pontiff.
Pope Benedict XVI headed to Israel on Monday on his first visit to the Mideast, aimed at promoting good relations between Muslims and Christians. Benedict’s stop in Tel Aviv will begin his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
In January, when Pope Benedict XVI reversed the 1988 excommunication of four bishops of an ultra-traditionalist Catholic group called the Society of St. Pius X , he probably knew it would ignite a firestorm. The church has significant unresolved problems with the society, among them its gross disobedience to the previous Pope.
On the second day of his visit to the Middle East, Pope Benedict XVI stressed the need for harmony and unity between Christians and Muslims.
American radio talk-show host Michael Savage said he wants an apology from Britain’s home secretary and his name removed from a list of people banned from entering the United Kingdom. “I’ve heard from British attorneys who are salivating to set the record straight and win quite a large settlement should she not remove my name from the list,” Savage said in an interview broadcast Thursday on CNN’s “American Morning.” Savage was referring to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, whose office recently excluded 22 people from entering the country because the government feels they have been “stirring up hatred.” The British government has cited Savage — who is on the list under his real name, Michael Alan Weiner — for “seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred which might lead to inter-community violence.” Savage has made controversial statements against homosexuality, illegal immigrants from Mexico and Islam. He said that “borders, language and culture is the real message of ‘The Savage Nation,’ ” his radio talk show.
Two Americans banned from entering the United Kingdom because the government feels they have been "stirring up hatred" responded by slamming the country’s home secretary, and one of them threatened to sue her.