surprise visits

Pope Francis Invites Israeli and Palestinian Presidents to Vatican Prayer Summit

During an impromptu stop at the barrier separating Bethlehem from Jerusalem, the Pope invited Israel’s President Shimon Peres and the Palestinian Authority’s President Mahmoud Abbas to pray together with him at the Vatican. “There is a need to intensify efforts and initiatives aimed at creating the conditions for a stable peace based on justice,” he said on Sunday. (Both leaders are said to have accepted the invitation.) The official purpose of Francis’s trip was to improve ties with the Orthodox Church, but leave it to Pope Renegade to think outside the box wall.

Pope Invites Israeli and Palestinian to Summit