MADABA, Jordan (CNS): Standing on the mountain where Moses glimpsed the Promised Land, Pope John Paul II prayed that peace and justice would come to the modern peoples of the troubled region.
His face lit by the afternoon sun on Jordan’s Mt Nebo, the Pope looked out on a dramatic biblical landscape stretching from the Dead Sea to Galilee as he embarked on the main leg of his Holy Land pilgrimage on March 20.
The ruins of a 6th century church that commemorates the place of Moses’ death provided a setting for the Pope’s stop, about 40 km south-west of Amman and a few kilometres from the hill city of Madaba, where thousands of residents cheered as his motorcade passed.
It was the first day of a week-long visit to holy places in Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories. The Pope began his Jubilee pilgrimage in prayer at the Vatican on February 23, since he was unable to visit Iraq, then continued his journey in Egypt, where he visited Mt Sinai and evoked the start of Moses’ mission.
The Pope praised the tradition of religious freedom in predominantly Muslim Jordan, which has largely been protected by the country’s Hashemite rulers. He met privately with King Abdullah later in the evening to discuss interreligious dialogue and prospects for Middle East peace.
