Pope John Paul II yesterday issued a forceful condemnation of the killings of the two Israeli teenagers in a cave in the West Bank. Speaking in Malta, at a beatification service attended by more than 200,000 people, the Pope said: "In the light of this terrible violence against innocent children, we must intensify our prayers for peace in the land of Jesus."
The Pope's two-day visit to Malta was the final stage of his controversial pilgrimage to Greece, Syria and Malta in the footsteps of the Apostle Paul. In Syria, he became the first Pope to visit a mosque when entering the Ummayad Mosque in Damascus to pray at the tomb of St John the Baptist, while he is the first Pope to visit Greece since the 1,000-year-old schism which split the Eastern and Western Churches.
While the Maltese leg of the Pope's 93rd overseas visit was marked by enthusiastic scenes from the 98 per cent Catholic population on the tiny Mediterranean island, the rest of the Pope's trip proved to be one of the most difficult of his pontificate.
In Greece, his visit was opposed by hardline elements within the Greek Orthodox Church, while his Syrian trip was punctuated by the strongly anti-Israeli tone of speeches by President Bashar Assad of Syria.
Given the diplomatic difficulties of the trip, not to mention his frail health, the Pope often looked tired to the point of exhaustion on this latest trip.
Despite that impression, however, the Vatican spokesman, Dr Joaquin Navarro-Valls, confirmed this week that the Pope will continue to travel, visiting Ukraine on another potentially difficult trip next month, while trips to both Canada and Bulgaria have been tentatively penned in for next year.
"The Pope is very happy with how things went in Syria and Greece and he is very satisfied that he could see out the full programme of the trip . . .
"We thought that after the year of the Holy Jubilee, that he would change pace [and slow down] but, on the contrary, he is back to his normal rhythm," said Dr Navarro-Valls.