Pope's mission 'strictly religious'

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis insists his weekend pilgrimage to the Middle East is a "strictly religious" commemoration of a key turning point in Catholic-Orthodox relations. But the delicate, three-day mission will test his diplomatic skills as he navigates Israeli-Palestinian tensions after the failure of the latest round of peace talks and fallout from Syria's civil war.

For a pope who embraces spontaneity and shuns papal protocol and security, the potential pitfalls are obvious. Not to mention the fact that Francis' stated purpose for traveling to Jordan, Israel, and the West Bank has little to do with the geopolitical headlines of the day.

Francis has said his pilgrimage is designed to mark the 50th anniversary of the historic meeting in Jerusalem between Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians.

Their iconic 1964 embrace - with the diminutive Paul almost dwarfed by the bearded, 6-foot-4 Patriarch of Constantinople - ended 900 years of mutual excommunications and divisions between Catholic and Orthodox stemming from the Great Schism of 1054, which split Christianity. It was the first meeting of a pope and patriarch since 1437.

The highlight of the trip that begins Saturday will be a prayer service led by Francis and Athengoras' successor, Bartholomew I, inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where the faithful believe Jesus was crucified and resurrected.

The service itself will be historic, given that the three main Christian communities that share the church - Greek-Orthodox, Armenian, and Roman Catholic - will pray together at the same time.

Prayer services at the ancient church are usually separate, with each Catholic and Orthodox community jealously guarding its turf and getting into occasional fistfights over infractions. Tellingly, no representative of the Russian Orthodox Church is expected to attend.

In a strong indication that Francis' priorities aren't exclusively religious, his secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said the pope would be bringing a very strong message of peace just weeks after the latest round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks ended in failure.

"I truly hope that the fruit would be to help all those responsible and all those of good will to take courageous decisions on the path to peace," Parolin told Vatican Television on the eve of the trip.

While ecumenical relations are getting the place of honor on this trip, interfaith relations with Muslims and Jews are getting relatively little attention.

Unlike the 2000 visit to the Holy Land by St. John Paul II and the 2009 visit by Pope Benedict XVI, no interfaith gathering of Israel's chief rabbis and the grand mufti of Jerusalem is planned. Francis will meet with the Jewish and Muslim leaders separately, and he is bringing along two old friends from Argentina - Rabbi Abraham Skorka and a leader of Argentina's Islamic community, Omar Abboud.

Perhaps in an olive branch to Israel, Francis will lay a wreath on Mount Herzl, Israel's national cemetery that is named for the founder of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl. He'll also meet with the Israeli prime minister and president, as well as the Jordanian and Palestinian leaders.

Francis will follow in his predecessors' footsteps by praying at the Western Wall and paying respects at the Holocaust memorial at Yad Vashem.