The prayed today for "peace in the Holy Land and in the world" in a ruined church in a ghost town on the Syrian Golan Heights - a symbol of the Middle East conflict.
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Pope John Paul
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"From this place, so disfigured by war, I wish to raise my heart and voice in prayer for peace in the Holy Land," he said in the Greek Orthodox church in Quneitra.
"True peace is a gift from God," the pope said.
"We pray to you for the peoples of the Middle East. Help them to tear down the walls of hostility and division and to build together a world of justice and solidarity."
Thousands of local people - many of them displaced from their original homes by the Israeli occupation of most of the strategic heights - welcomed the Pope on his arrival in Quneitra.
The church which the Pope is visiting on the third day of a historic visit to Syria is one of the few buildings left standing after the Israelis pulled out in 1974. They destroyed most of the town with dynamite as they went.
The church is located at the entry to Quneitra, and from the courtyard in front Israeli radar antennae on the hills overlooking the town are clearly visible.
Next to the church are the remains of an elementary school, now no more than rubble.
AFP