After meeting Peres, Pope set to speak with prime minister

 

"I believe that your visit and call for peace will echo through the region and contribute to revitalizing the efforts to complete the peace process between us and the Palestinians, based on two states living in peace," he added.

 

Peres called the pontiff "a rock against any attempt to connect religion to terror," adding that "In the face of moral corruption we must show moral responsibility. And make clear that there is no greater contradiction than that between faith and murder."

  

In his own speech at the event, the pope called Peres "a man of peace" and commended his efforts in the peace process.

 

The pope also spoke out against anti-Semitism "in all its forms" and said he hoped for an end to all conflicts in the Middle East.

 

The pope ended his speech with a word in Hebrew: "Shalom!"

 

Speaking at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and Museum on Monday, Pope Francis compared the Holocaust to idolatry and expressed shame in “what man, created in [God’s] own image and likeness, was capable of doing.”

 

Francis’ remarks came during his brief visit to the site, where he laid a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance and greeted six Holocaust survivors. Following his address, Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev presented the pope with a reproduction of a painting of a hasid engrossed in prayer that was painted by a teenaged victim of the Holocaust in the Lodz ghetto.

 

Speaking in the presence of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, himself a survivor, Francis further beseeched God to “grant us the grace to be ashamed of what we men have done,” adding that the Nazi genocide was a “massive idolatry” that must never happen again.

 

In the gloom of the stone hall, the massive stones and concrete of its construction looming above him, the pontiff looked small and frail, an old man dwarfed by the immensity of the issues of theodicy and divine justice inherent in an examination of the Holocaust.

 

Standing illuminated by spotlights and the glow of the memorial flame he had lit only minutes before, Francis questioned the role of God in the slaughter.

 

“The Father knew the risk of freedom, he knew that his children could be lost, yet perhaps not even the Father could imagine so great a fall, so profound an abyss,” he mourned.

 

Addressing mankind collectively as the biblical Adam, the pontiff asked: “Who led you to presume that you are the master of good and evil? Who convinced you that you were God? Not only did you torture and kill your brothers and sisters, but you sacrificed them to yourself, because you made yourself a god. Today, in this place, we hear once more the voice of God: ‘Adam, where are you?’ Hear Lord and have mercy,” Francis intoned. “We have sinned against you. You reign forever.”

 

After his remarks, the pope stood silent at the podium, contemplating, before stepping aside to hug Peres and shake Netanyahu’s hand.

 

The papal visit to Yad Vashem “has a very special meaning,” Adrian Werthein, a Jewish communal leader from the pope’s native Argentina told The Jerusalem Post.

 

“He chose to come here to Yad Vashem to [show] recognition [for] the torch of memory of the Jewish people.”

 

Before arriving at Yad Vashem, Pope Francis laid a wreath at the tomb of Theodor Herzl and visited the Memorial to Victims of Terror. The pontiff was wrapping up his historic visit to the region with a message of peace and reconciliation between the three monotheistic faiths in the Holy Land.

 

Following his visit with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem at the Temple Mount, Pope Francis continued on to the Western Wall where he was greeted by the Rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitch.

The pope was treated to a short history lesson about the First and Second Temples, which was followed by a short speech from Rabbi Rabinovitch on the importance of Jerusalem to the Jews. 

 

Rabinovitch also spoke about the threat of anti-Semitism, making reference to the shooting in Brussels at the Jewish Museum on Saturday. Rabinovitch stressed that Jerusalem must be a city of peace for all nations.

 

The pope declined to speak at this event, but he approached the Wall, where he prayed for about 90 seconds before placing a note inside.

 

Rabbi Avraham Skorka, a close friend of the pontiff who is accompanying him on this trip, told Channel 10 that Francis prayed "that the [West Bank] security barrier and that genuine peace will come."

 

"The last time we spoke was last night," Skorka said. "This isn\’t an easy visit for him, and it included important acts and events with special significance."

 

"Nonetheless, he\’s content, calm, and he knows how to balance emotions and to be level-headed."

 

Security at the Wall was tight, with hundreds of policemen standing guard, and helicopters and snipers keeping watch from above.

 

Pope Francis set the tone for the second day of his visit to Israel with a message of tolerance at the Temple Mount. 

 

He called upon all those who identify with Abraham – Christians, Jews and Muslims – to respect one another as brothers and sisters.

 

"Let us learn how to understand the pain of others and no one will use violence in the name of God," he said.

 

The pope was expected to visit Yad Vashem later on Monday, where he will shake the hands of six Holocaust survivors, each with a survival story relating to Christianity.

 

The pontiff toured the Temple Mount complex Monday morning before paying a visit to the Western Wall.

 

Francis also met Muslim communal leaders, among them the Mufti of Jerusalem.