In Jordan, pope talks of peace
Thousands attend Mass on 1st day of visit to Holy Land
AMMAN, Jordan — Bearing a message of peace to a strife-torn region, Pope Francis, whose defining trait as pontiff has been an intense sympathy for the downtrodden, embraced Christian pilgrims and refugees — literally and figuratively — on Saturday, the first day of a three-day Mideast pilgrimage.
The pope landed in Jordan for a sojourn he vowed would be religious in nature but which inevitably reflects the region’s volatile politics.
After touching down at Amman’s Queen Alia International Airport, he received a red-carpet welcome, accepting bouquets from children, reviewing an honor guard and shaking hands with assembled dignitaries and religious leaders.
Muslim imam and a Jewish rabbi accompanied him on what is his first visit to the Holy Land as pope — a trip that will also take him to theWest Bank and Israel.
Security was tight, with Francis clearly making his hosts somewhat nervous by eschewing a bulletproof “popemobile” in favor of an open car. Jordanian soldiers lined the airport road at 100-yard intervals and patrolled nearby overpasses. The 77-year-old Argentineborn pontiff, whose tenure to date has been marked by gestures of humility and identification with the poor, has said he feels that riding in a fortified vehicle would isolate him from the public.
Francis met with King Abdullah II and Queen Rania at the royal palace and then held a stadium Mass before at least 15,000 faithful, some of whom had waited for hours in the blazing sun to be sure they many Middle Eastern Christians, she said she felt Francis had made a profound gesture of solidarity.
“He loves us. You can feel it. He loves us,” she said tearfully.
At the stadium, the pope kissed children and babies held up for him by the faithful who pressed close to his vehicle.
During the open-air ceremony, the pontiff made a cautious allusion to regional tensions, urging conciliation rather than surrendering to old hatreds.
“Peace is not something which can be bought,” he said. “It is a gift to be sought patiently and to be crafted
“Peace is not something which can be bought. It is a gift to be sought patiently.”
would catch a glimpse of him.
“The pope coming here — it is as if he is enfolding us in his arms,” Mariam Bassam, who escaped Iraq with her family nearly a decade ago, said as she waited outside the venue. Though she is not aRomanCatholic, followingEastern rites asdo through actions, great and small, of our everyday lives. The way of peace is strengthened if we realize that we are all of the same stock and members of the one human family.”
Later, Francis visited what many believe to be the site of Jesus’ baptism on the banks of the Jordan River, hearing there the firsthand stories of refugees, many of whom have fled Syria’s grinding civilwar.
At a welcoming ceremony in Amman, he thanked Jordan for taking in so many who had no choice but to flee their homeland despite the enormous strain on Jordan’s limited resources, and he expressed hopes for an end to the three-year conflict.
Jordanhassome600,000 registered refugees from Syria, but the actualnumber is probably double that, according to aid groups. Christians comprise about 5 percent of Syria’s population, but they make up a disproportionate share of refugees, as some historically Christian enclaves have been hit particularly hard by fighting.
A major theme of the papal visit is offering encouragement to the region’s ever- dwindling flock of Christian faithful. Francis, like other popes before him, has mourned the decline of Christian populations in the cradle of Christianity. In the West Bank and Israel, Francis will face the delicate task of navigating a political minefield. His visit comes on the heels of the collapse of the latest high-profile peace efforts.
In a break with longstanding protocol, Francis was due to fly directly from Amman to Bethlehem, in the West Bank, rather than through Israel. And he will visit a Palestinian refugee camp, highlighting the plight of those displaced when Israelwas founded in 1948.
The Vatican supports a two-state solution to the conflict, and Israel is unhappy about the official papal agenda describing the West Bank stop as a visit to the “State of Palestine.”