Last week Pope John Paul II, 79, took a historic spiritual journey to the Middle East. The ailing leader of the world's 1 billion Roman Catholics visited Israel, Jordan and the West Bank. He retraced the footsteps of Jesus and visited holy sites.
People considered the Pope's trip to Israeli and Palestinian lands a politically dangerous one. For decades Palestinians and Israelis have fought bitterly over territory, including Jerusalem, which both groups claim.
The Pope met with leaders from the two sides. He urged them to make peace. Many Palestinians hoped the Pope could help them establish their own nation. In Bethlehem, he said Palestinians have "the right to a homeland."
The Pope visited Jerusalem's Yad Vashem, a memorial to the 6 million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust during World War II. "There are no words strong enough to deplore the terrible tragedy," he said. He offered an apology from the Catholic Church for Christian mistreatment of Jews. Some felt the Pope should have apologized for the church's failure to do more to stop the Holocaust.
Still, said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, the Pope has "done more than anyone else to bring about the historic change in the attitude of the church toward the Jewish people."