On his last day of pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Pope Benedict XVI revisited on Friday (May 15) Jerusalem's Old City and met with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, leader of the second largest denomination of local Christians in the city. The Greek Orthodox Church is one of the oldest churches in the city of Jerusalem and is the largest Eastern Church in the region.
After a ceremony led by Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilus III, Benedict XVI paid his first vis Read more

On his last day of pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Pope Benedict XVI revisited on Friday (May 15) Jerusalem's Old City and met with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, leader of the second largest denomination of local Christians in the city. The Greek Orthodox Church is one of the oldest churches in the city of Jerusalem and is the largest Eastern Church in the region.
After a ceremony led by Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilus III, Benedict XVI paid his first visit as pope to the Church of Holy Sepulchre, one of the holiest sites in Christendom.
The pope kissed and prayed near the "Stone of Anointing,"
where many Christians believe the body of Jesus Christ was prepared for burial.
The ancient church compound inside Jerusalem's walled Old City, near sites sacred to Islam and Judaism, is believed to be the place where Christ was crucified, died, was buried, and then rose from the dead, according to the Christian faith.
Ending a gruelling eight day tour of Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, the 82-year-old pontiff said, "Jesus asks each of us to be a witness of unity and peace to all those who live in this City of Peace".
On Thursday, the Pope said mass for 40,000 at the largest event of his pilgrimage in the Galilee town of Nazareth, which the Bible says was the boyhood home of Jesus.
Benedict sang a song of peace at an inter-faith meeting with Muslims and Jews and discussed the elusive efforts to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace in talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
They talked about a mutual "desire to advance diplomatic ties between Israel and the Vatican and understanding between Judaism and Christianity", Netanyahu's office said in a written statement.
It said the talks were held in a "good atmosphere," a tone that contrasted with controversy the German-born pope aroused over a speech on Monday (May 11) at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial to six million Jews murdered by the Nazis.
Some Israelis had criticised the Pope's remarks as having been too abstract and lacking in empathy.
Relations between the Catholic Church and Israel have also been hurt by recent Vatican support for sainthood for the controversial World War Two Pope Pius XII and Benedict's decision to lift the excommunication of a conservative British bishop who denied the extent of the Holocaust. Close