文章基本信息

标题：Pope tackles thorny issues
作者：From Brian Murphy
期刊名称：The Sunday Herald
印刷版ISSN：1465-8771
出版年度：2000
卷号：Feb 27, 2000
出版社：Newsquest (Herald and Times) Ltd.

Pope tackles thorny issues

From Brian Murphy

POPE John Paul II prayed at the foot of Mount Sinai yesterday and, in a simple tree-shaded garden under the peak revered as the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments, urged religious tolerance.

The visit to the desert outpost was the highlight of his trip to Egypt and the first major stop of his millennial travels to biblical sites. It drew strongly on the ancient religious legacy of the land but also pointed out the contemporary obstacles to the pope's appeal for unity among Christians and with other faiths.

The pope entered the 1500-year-old Monastery of Saint Catherine and prayed for 10 minutes in front of the thorny evergreen that the monks revere as the remnants of the burning bush mentioned in the Bible. The Book of Exodus says God used it to summon Moses and to ask him to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land. The pope softly spoke the words God told Moses: "I am who I am."

At the end of his three-day trip to Egypt, the pope said he had finally joined the other pilgrims who have walked "in the footsteps of God". Next month, the pontiff is scheduled to visit Jerusalem, Bethlehem and other places in Israel and Palestine.

His voice grew strong and clear as he spoke to about 1500 people about the need for understanding and dialogue "between the followers of the great monotheistic religions" - Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

"I pray that, in the new millennium, the Monastery of Saint Catherine will be a radiant beacon calling the churches to know one another better and to rediscover the importance in the eyes of God of the things that unite us in Christ," the pope told the crowd.

But the head of the Greek Orthodox monastery, Arch-bishop Damianos, declined to pray with the pope because of ecclesiastical differences dating from the split between the Vatican and the Orthodox churches nearly 1000 years ago.

Last Friday, leading rabbis asked that the pope change the schedule of his upcoming visit to Israel in deference to the Jewish sabbath. They also sought assurances that missionaries would not target Jews.