Pope, Palestinian president meet at Vatican

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — As the fighting in Gaza drags on, Pope Francis welcomed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the Vatican.

The Vatican press office said the two spoke privately for 30 minutes Dec. 12 before Abbas introduced his delegation and exchanged gifts with Pope Francis.

The pope gave the Palestinian leader a plaque of a bloom sprouting through a crack in the pavement with the Italian inscription, “Peace is a fragile flower.”

Abbas gave the pope two paintings: one of the two of them together and the other, based on a well-known photo, shows Pope Francis praying for peace in front of the Israeli security wall in Bethlehem during his visit in 2014.

The Palestinian president also brought the pope a gift from Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem: an icon of St. Porphyrius, a fourth-century bishop of Gaza.

Abbas also met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, and Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, the Vatican foreign minister.

As has become the Vatican custom, the press office issued a statement that the pope met the Palestinian leader but provided no details on their discussion.

Instead, the statement focused on Abbas’ meeting in the Secretariat of State, which, it said, highlighted “the important contribution of the Catholic Church to Palestinian society, also in assisting in the very serious humanitarian situation in Gaza, where it is hoped that there will be a ceasefire and the release of all hostages as soon as possible.”

The Vatican and Palestinian delegations also condemned “all forms of terrorism,” the statement said, and affirmed “the importance of reaching the solution for the two states (Israel and Palestine) only through dialogue and diplomacy.”

They also agreed that “Jerusalem, protected by a special status, can be a place of encounter and friendship between the three great monotheistic religions,” Judaism, Christian and Islam.

“Finally,” the statement said, “the hope was expressed that the Jubilee of 2025 may lead to the return of pilgrims in the Holy Land, which longs so much for peace.”

According to his official Facebook page, Abbas inaugurated the new offices of the Palestinian embassy to the Holy See during his visit to Rome.

Whereas the Vatican recognizes Palestinian statehood, Italy, like most countries in the European Union, does not.

A statement issued by WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency, said Abbas “thanked the pope for his positions in support of achieving a just peace in Palestine based on the two-state solution, a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip, and that hospitals, schools and places of worship enjoy all necessary protection.”

The Palestinian leader also told the pope that during the Christmas season all Christians should “pay attention to the suffering of the Palestinian people, who yearn for peace, justice, liberation from occupation, the exercise of their right to self-determination and the realization of their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital,” WAFA said.

Abbas also spoke to the pope about the need “to preserve the historical and legal status of Islamic and Christian holy places in Jerusalem, and the need to ensure freedom of worship and free access to the holy places, and to preserve the holy city in the face of unilateral policies that affect the city’s identity and civilized character.”