Pope Benedict leaves the Church of Nativity in his pope mobile after celebrating Mass Wednesday in Bethlehem.

John L. Allen Jr.
CNN Senior Vatican Analyst

For some time now, people have asked why someone doesn’t give the Vatican some PR help. This afternoon, someone finally did – and it was a Jew to boot.

The setting was an inter-faith meeting in Nazareth, the traditional hometown of Jesus and his parents, Joseph and Mary, in the Galilee region of northern Israel. The event brought Pope Benedict XVI together with local leaders of the Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Druze faiths.

As it turned out, the event produced arguably the best visual of the pope’s week-long trip to the Middle East. At the end of the brief session, Alon Goshen-Gottstein, a Jew who runs an inter-faith center in Jerusalem, led the assembly in a rousing song he had composed specially for the occasion. It was titled “Salaam, Shalom, Lord Grant Us Peace.”

As the song went on, the religious leaders on stage began to join in, including the pontiff himself. At the end, the rabbis, sheikhs, bishops, and other spiritual leaders rose from their seats and held hands, as the word for peace in various languages was belted out in the hall. Benedict was standing in the center of the group, singing and holding hands with a rabbi and a Druze sheikh.

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John L. Allen Jr.
CNN Senior Vatican Analyst
Bethlehem, Palestinian Territories

Perceived injustices often produce one of two effects in people. It can either breed determination to rise above one’s circumstances, or it can leave someone angry and disillusioned. Two vignettes from around the edges of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the Aida refugee camp in the Palestinian-controlled West Bank illustrate each option.

I was in the Aida Palestinian refugee camp just north of Bethlehem on the West Bank today to cover the pontiff’s visit, a highlight of day five of his week-long visit to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

Aida was opened shortly after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and is today home to around 5,000 Palestinians, most of whom were driven from homes in and around the city of Jerusalem. This sprawling cluster of concrete structures abuts a 30-foot-tall “security barrier,” or wall, erected by Israel as a buffer between itself and the Palestinian Territories. Officials of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, which supports several activities in the camp, say it’s badly over-crowded.

Sofia Ramadan, 15, is one of the voices I met today. She grew up in the Aida camp, and attended the school whose courtyard hosted today’s papal event. She was part of a dance troupe which performed for the pope and for President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian National Authority.

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Hussein Rashid says Pope Benedict XVI, here at a Jordan mosque, can use his moral authority for peace.

Hussein Rashid
Special to CNN

There is an assumption that the visit to the Middle East by Pope Benedict XVI will be a profound event. However, no one seems to be asking why there is such an expectation.

Unlike Pope John Paul II, who recognized the state of Israel and visited Muslim holy sites, both historic events, the current pope is better known for interfaith missteps.

Coverage of Benedict's visit to the region seems implicitly to hope for further conflict; everybody is ready for the fight and is disappointed when the hockey game breaks out. What is not acknowledged, and what makes this trip noteworthy, is not the man but the institution of the papacy.

The moral authority that is linked to papal authority is what we hope will be on display. The fact that the pope, as a Christian pilgrim, should retrace the steps of Jesus is unsurprising. The fact that he is expected to speak about more than that issue is surprising.

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Pope Benedict XVI visits the King Hussein Bin Talal mosque Saturday in Amman, Jordan.

The pope looks out from Mount Nebo, where the Bible says Moses looked over to the promised land.

John L. Allen Jr.
CNN Senior Vatican Analyst
Amman, Jordan

The last time a pope’s shoes were in the news, it was shortly after Benedict XVI’s election four years ago. A rumor made the rounds that the new pope had replaced the scuffed loafers of his predecessor, John Paul II, with stylish new Prada footwear – a rumor, by the way, eventually denied by the Vatican.

Today in Jordan, the pope’s shoes raised eyebrows for another reason … specifically, because he didn’t take them off.

The setting was the Hussein bin Talal Mosque in the Jordanian capital of Amman, the second mosque Benedict has visited as pope. (He went to the famed Blue Mosque in Instanbul, Turkey, in 2006.) It was only the third time a pope has ever entered a mosque, with the first coming with the late Pope John Paul II in Damascus, Syria, in 2001.

Because these events are so rare, and in light of other episodes in which perceived slights to Muslim sensitivities have had lethal consequences, the day’s symbolism was closely scrutinized. When discerning eyes realized that the pontiff had not taken off his shoes before entering the mosque, which is widely considered a sign of respect in the Islamic world, heart-rates went up in fear that the pope had committed a gaffe that might unleash new tensions.

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Jordan's King Abdullah II speaks with Pope Benedict XVI at the international airport in Amman on Friday.

John L. Allen Jr.
CNN Senior Vatican Analyst
Amman, Jordan

For reporters covering the foreign travels of Pope Benedict XVI, head of the Roman Catholic Church and arguably the most important religious leader in the world, the hardest part of trying to handicap these events is knowing which pontiff will show up.

Will it be the Benedict of Regensburg, Germany, in 2006, who delivered a speech linking Muhammad to violence that set off a firestorm of protest all across the Islamic world? Or will it be the Benedict of highly successful expeditions to Turkey in 2006 and the United States in 2008, where the pontiff turned in bravura performances that went a long way toward healing wounds and improving his public image?

After four years as pope, Benedict XVI has shown a host of impressive qualities: theological brilliance, personal humility, and a teacher’s aptitude for clarity. His track record at public relations, however, is spottier, making any turn on the public stage something of a roll of the dice.

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John L. Allen Jr.
CNN Sr. Vatican Analyst
Vatican Correspondent, National Catholic Reporter

Prior to the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI in the United States last Tuesday, he remained an enigma for most Americans. A poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life showed that 80 percent of Americans, including two-thirds of the country’s 70 million Catholics, knew “nothing or next to nothing” about the pope.

If this six-day swing shaped up as Benedict’s opportunity to introduce himself to the American public, what is it people seem to have learned?

For Catholic insiders, the list of things gleaned is probably almost infinite. Priests who attended the pope’s Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York this morning, for example, probably paid close attention to the details of how Benedict celebrated the Mass, as well as the rhetorical and spiritual approach he took in his homily (a reflection on the scripture readings), as models for how they themselves will do those things in the future. Catholic educators undoubtedly paid close attention to the vision for Catholic schools the pope laid out in his address at the Catholic University of America on Thursday.

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Amy Sahba
CNN Producer

After Pope Benedict XVI held Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in midtown Manhattan this morning, he took a ride uptown in his Mercedes Popemobile to greet New Yorkers and visitors that had come out to see him.

My crew and I headed to the Upper East Side of Manhattan pretty early in the morning, trying to beat the crowds and ensure we got a good spot to film the procession once it started moving north.

Most of the surrounding streets were already closed to traffic, and the amount of police and security was surprising. I was stopped several times on my way to our location, despite the big press pass hanging around my neck.

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Amy Sahba
CNN 

The UN is a pretty interesting place to be at even on a quiet day, let alone on a day like today, with such a high profile personality visiting.

Security was tight, and movement throughout the building was very limited once the Pope arrived. Squawk boxes alerted us to close all of our windows and updated us as to what sections of the building were being frozen. We watched the Pope’s motorcade pull in to the driveway from our office window and followed nearly every second of his tour and speeches from our monitors.

Benedict XVI was received by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who does not belong to any particular religious affiliation, and they proceeded together to the Secretary’s office...
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Sherre Hirsch is the author of We Plan, God Laughs

Editor's note: Sherre Hirsch was a rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles for eight years and is the Spiritual Life Consultant and a speaker for Canyon Ranch. She appeared regularly on Noami Judd’s New Morning. She has been featured on Today, Tyra, and PBS’s Thirty Good Minutes and is also a contributor to Momlogic.com. Hirsch lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children.

Rabbi Sherre Hirsch

This Saturday night begins the holiday of Passover, the most widely observed holiday in the Jewish religion. Jews around the world will “open the door” metaphorically for Elijah, symbolically to herald the coming peace. During his first papal visit to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI has made it a point to be at a synagogue in New York City during Passover. By going out of his way to meet a rabbi in a synagogue, the Pope is opening the door to a dialogue, and taking a step forward to remove barriers and promote understanding. This is certainly better than a step back or not having the courage to take a step at all.

It brings to mind the words of Abraham Isaac Kook, a prominent 20th century religious thinker and the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, who spoke of the unity we can find despite our many different points of view, beliefs, and cultures.

Rav Kook said,
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John L. Allen Jr.
CNN Sr. Vatican Analyst
Vatican Correspondent, National Catholic Reporter

Three days ago, I got an e-mail from a fellow journalist telling me that Bernie McDaid, a victim of priestly sex abuse whom I had met in 2003 in Rome, wanted to reach me. At the time, I was overwhelmed with coverage of the first day of Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to America, and inclined to file the e-mail under “things that can wait.”

My colleague’s teaser that “you’ll want to hear this,” however, stirred me to make the call right away.

I sensed something might be up, because two weeks earlier I had interviewed the Vatican’s ambassador in the United States, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, who told me that a meeting between the pope and sex abuse victims while Benedict was in America remained “within the field of possibility.” I also understood that such a meeting would be historic, since no pope had ever before sat down with victims to hear their stories, offer his apology, and solicit their advice as to how the church might respond.

As it turns out...
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