During his recent journey to the Holy Land, Pope Francis invited Shimon Peres, President of the State of Israel, and Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, to come to the Vatican to “send up” with him “a mighty prayer, appealing to God for the gift of peace.”  This interreligious meeting will take place this month on the afternoon of June 8, on the Feast of Pentecost, and the Pope announced that a rabbi and a Muslim [cleric] would be with him on either side.

In an interview granted to Vatican Radio, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, declared:  “We hope that in a place where presently human efforts have failed, the Lord might give wisdom and fortitude to all, in order to build a true peace.”  Now it is certain that the Lord Jesus Christ is not the one who will be invoked by Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas, nor by the rabbi and the Muslim [cleric] on either side of the Pope, since Judaism and Islam reject the Savior, the Son of God.  Francis says that he hopes for a “mighty prayer”, but it will be mighty ambiguous.  As at Assisi, the participants will betogether in order to pray separately.

In a message dated May 19 addressed to Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, the Pope asserted that this dialogue “does not imply relativizing the Christian faith”.  Those are simple words;  the June 8 meeting will be a much more eloquent act.  They will put under a bushel basket the message of the one Savior, the Prince of Peace.