Catholics Thrilled That Pope So Influential In Mideast Peacemaking

Rome, July 21 – Just two months after a landmark visit to the Holy Land by Pope Francis, Catholics around the world are encouraged by the visit’s lasting impact on efforts to bring peace to the region.

Francis visited Israel and the Palestinian territories in May, a trip fraught with political tensions and diplomatic nuance. After calling for peace, he invited Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the Vatican to pray for peace, which the two heads of state did last month. In the weeks since then, the region has exploded in turmoil, first with the tit-for-tat abductions and murders of Israeli and Arab teenagers, and then with rocket fire from the Gaza Strip that prompted a massive Israeli assault.

Catholic spiritual and lay leaders praised Francis’s inaction over the last several weeks, calling his use of prayer “courageous” and complimenting his steadfast devotion to pretending his pronouncements carry any weight with the parties to the conflict. But most of all, says Monsignor Snivel Coward of San Diego, the pope’s followers admire his devotion to avoiding actual behavior that would bespeak actual moral clarity on the conflict.

“I’m awed by Francis’s attention to the flattery of oppressive regimes,” said Monsignor Coward, who heads a grassroots organization called With Rome On Notions Global (WRONG), a group dedicated to drumming up support for the Church’s foreign policy. “Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Christians in general, let alone Catholics, have actually had a population increase in recent decades. It was brave of Francis not to confront Mahmoud Abbas about repression of Christianity in the Palestinian territories.”

“It’s gratifying to see the pope so involved in the important issues,” said Cardinal James Dolan of the New York Archdiocese. “The pursuit of security and peace in the birthplace of our faith can only be attained through bold initiatives such as ignoring the barbaric behavior and attitudes of Palestinian leaders and decision-makers.” He praised Monsignor Coward for the latter’s WRONG activities.

“We are especially moved by Francis’s silence on Hamas’s use of hospitals and schools as military positions, considering that the very institutions of the hospital and the public school were Catholic creations,” added Dolan. “Avoidance of direct opposition to evil is an important papal tradition dating back at least to the Second World War.”