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Itongadol.- "I have come here to pray to God to make peace prevail," Pope Francis said Monday as he prayed at the Western Wall, one the Jews\’ most revered shrines and a sole remnant of their sacred Second Temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
Like many visitors, he tucked a small written message between the ancient stones before walking away.
He left a note with the text of the "Our Father" prayer written in his native Spanish in one of the cracks between the stones.
He then embraced his good friend, Argentine Rabbi Abraham Skorka, and a leader of Argentina\’s Muslim community, Omar Abboud, both of whom joined his official delegation for the trip in a sign of interfaith friendship.
When St. John Paul II visited the Western Wall in 2000, he left a note asking forgiveness for the suffering inflicted on Jews by Christians over history. Pope Benedict XVI\’s note prayed for peace for Christians, Muslims and Jews alike.
In a decision that delighted his hosts, Francis later laid a wreath at the tomb of Theodor Herzl, who is seen as the founder of modern Zionism that led to Israel\’s foundation.
The Catholic Church initially opposed the creation of a Jewish state, and the three other pontiffs who have come to Jerusalem over the past 50 years did not visit the site.