Pope meets 'angel of peace' Abbas; set to canonise two Palestinian nuns
VATICAN CITY, May 16, (AFP) - Pope Francis met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas today, calling him “an angel of peace,” days after the Vatican said it was preparing to sign its first accord with Palestine to the anger of Israel.
Abbas met the pontiff for about 20 minutes at a private audience, which came a day before the head of the Roman Catholic Church was due to canonise two Palestinian nuns, who will become the first Palestinian Arabs to gain sainthood.
The Vatican said in a statement the pope and Abbas discussed the peace process with Israel and that “the hope was expressed that direct negotiations between the parties be resumed in order to find a just and lasting solution to the conflict”.
“To this end the wish was reiterated that, with the support of the international community, Israelis and Palestinians may take with determination courageous decisions to promote peace,” it said.
They exchanged gifts with the pope giving Abbas a medal with a figure of the angel of peace “which destroys the evil spirit of war”.
“I thought of you because you are an angel of peace,” he told Abbas.
Abbas's meeting with the pope came a day before two nuns who lived in Ottoman Palestine during the 19th century will be made saints at a Vatican ceremony.
Marie Alphonsine Ghattas of Jerusalem and Mariam Bawardy of Galilee will become the first Palestinian Arabs to gain sainthood.
Ghattas was born in Jerusalem in 1847, and died there in 1927. She was beatified -- the final step before canonisation -- in 2009.
Bawardy was born in Galilee, now in northern Israel, in 1843. She became a nun in France and died in Bethlehem in 1878. She was beatified by pope John Paul II in 1983.
Although there are several saints who lived in the region during Christianity's early days, Bawardy and Ghattas are the first to be canonised from Ottoman- era Palestine.
The canonisation of a third Palestinian -- a Salesian monk -- is still under review by the Church.