MIDDLE EAST - Pope Francis' Visit

I too believe Palestine IS a sovereign nation.

"Pope Francis performs ‘balancing act’ of agendas on Middle East visit" (Part-1) PBS NewsHour 5/26/2014

Excerpt

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  Nicholas Casey, is the Middle East correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and covered the pope’s trip.  He joins us now from Jerusalem.

Nick, let me ask you first about the pope’s invitation to Mahmoud Abbas and Shimon Peres to come to Rome.  How much of a surprise was that, and how is it being seen by people that you’re talking to there?

NICHOLAS CASEY, The Wall Street Journal:  Well, it was a surprise to us, the reporters.  Sources I have in both governments said that this was an idea that was floated beforehand.

Now, what’s happened diplomatically on the two sides is that they have both walked away from the table.  This happened really acrimoniously last month.  Neither side has been talking to each other since.  So the pope realized this was the situation here and tried to get an olive branch circulating between both sides, which means that, some time next month, the presidents of the two countries are going to be meeting.  It’s not clear what they’re going to be talking about, how much politics will be on the table.

Officially, this is a meeting of talking, reflection and prayer.  But, hopefully, it will lead to some sort of revival of peace talks here eventually.

"Pope Francis invites Israeli, Palestinian leaders for prayer at the Vatican" (Part-2) PBS NewsHour 5/26/2014

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SUMMARY:  In charged acts of political symbolism, Pope Francis stopped at some of the holiest sites for Jews and Muslims during a trip to the Middle East.  Pope Francis called for renewed peace talks, and became the first pontiff to refer to the “state of Palestine.”  The visit came just weeks after U.S.-led talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators collapsed.  Jeffrey Brown reports.

RELIGION - Pope Francis Reaches Out to Jewish Community

"The Pope reaches out to the Jewish Community" PBS Newshour 10/19/2013

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SUMMARY:  Pope Francis made several overtures to the Jewish community this week, sending an email to the son of two Holocaust survivors to laud him on a lecture discussing faith and the Holocaust, and refusing to grant a former Nazi war criminal a funeral mass.  Kim Lawton from PBS's Religion and Ethics Weekly.

RELIGION - Rift Grows Over Priest Abuse

"Rift Grows Between Ireland, Vatican Over Priest Abuse Allegations" PBS Newshour 7/26/2011

Excerpt from transcript

RAY SUAREZ (Newshour): We saw that just small excerpt of what was a scathing statement from the prime minister in parliament, then echoed by the attorney general, the minister for children.

Does this represent a change in the way Ireland regards its relationship with the Roman Catholic Church?

RICHARD DOWNES, RTE: I think, if it does, it's a change that has been a very long time in coming.

This whole episode, this whole series of episodes started about 20, 25 years ago with a number of books, and then a television series on our own television station exposing the cruelty and the torture of children that went on in a number of institutions.

Up until about 10, 15 years ago, a number of people, including a number of the clerics involved, they were kind of able to say, look, this is an isolated thing, it's a thing in the past. But as time has gone on, it has become clear and abundantly clear that such was the power of the Catholic Church in Ireland that they were able to -- that a number of people or, in particular, sick individuals, you could say, within that institution were able to continue the abuse right up until very recently, and, according to the Cloyne report, up until very recent times.

But now nobody can be in any doubt. The number of reports, the number of investigations has been so extensive, that, you know, it would be a fool who would -- who would disagree with them and try to play them down.

So, yes, it is. It's a watershed. But there are still many, many other investigations to happen. This is just one diocese in one corner of Ireland. Donegal has to happen. There's also talk of an inquiry into the Diocese of Galway. So, yes, we're going to have more of these reports.