Israel and Pope Francis

Pope Francis: A day after he boosted Palestinian aspirations by praying at Israel security barrier surrounding Bethlehem, Francis honoured Holocaust victims by kissing the hands of several survivors, and accepted Israel last-minute request to pray at a memorial to victims of suicide bombings and other attacks, according to CTV. After visiting the golden-topped Dome of the Rock shrine on the compound on Monday morning, Francis prayed at the nearby Western Wall, leaving a hand-written note with the "Our Father" prayer written in his native Spanish in between the cracks of stone and - Pope Francis wrapped up his Mideast pilgrimage Monday with a balancing act of symbolic and sometimes spontaneous gestures to press his call for peace between Israel and the Palestinians and friendship between Jews and Muslims in the land of Jesu birth. But the image that the Vatican hopes will define the trip, and perhaps Franci young papacy, was another: that of the leader of the 1.2 billion strong Roman Catholic Church embracing his Argentine friends, a rabbi and a Muslim, in front of the Western Wall, adjacent to the disputed hilltop compound that lies at the heart of decades of Israel-Arab tensions. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.