HONG KONG — Pope Benedict XVI's leaving the home comforts of the Vatican for the political and religious mine field called the Holy Land proved to be his own difficult pilgrimage in which a learned, but aloof, theologian discovered in Palestinian pain and suffering his own authentic cry for peace in a troubled world.
Of greater importance is whether the pope managed to advance the cause of peace in the Middle East. Did he manage to convey the pain and suffering and the dangers to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to persuade the reluctant Israeli leader that he must be a peacemaker not a stumbling block, for the sake of Israel, for the Middle East and, it is fair to say, for the future of the world as a whole?
Quarrels between the three major religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — that say they believe in an almighty and merciful God have torn apart the region for centuries. But today the threat of terminal violence has become global with the spread of an aggressive version of Islam that often uses Israeli domination of the Holy Land as its excuse for seeking to purify the world by terror.