Pope Francis has sent a message to Catholic charitable organizations working in Syria and has launched a new appeal to the international community to allow humanitarian aid.

“It is with great pain that we witness the failure to find a solution to the Syrian crisis which continues and risks turning into something people are used to.” Francis wrote this in a message to participants of the coordination meeting between the Catholic charitable organizations that operate in the context of the Syrian crisis. The message was delivered this afternoon.

At the General Audience dedicated to his recent trip to the Holy Land Francis said: “I ask forgiveness for what we have done to encourage the division among Christians”.

A powerful initiative of faith and peace was at the heart and centre of a surprising and courageous journey, following in the unforgettable steps of Paul VI’s pilgrimage half a century ago. This sums up Pope Francis’ itinerary in the Holy Land, an event of prime importance that aroused scores of comments even before it concluded. As the Pope predicted, we will need to reflect more deeply on these days — days so full of appointments yet so focused, days in which religion and politics were interwoven, as had been foreseen.

The visit of Pope Francis to the Holy Land was a smashing success as he showed the world that religion can be a force for peace and reconciliation rather than a cause of division and conflict. The scheduled events went smoothly and his unscheduled actions caught the imagination of the world.

One highlight of the visit was the meeting of Pope Francis with Patriarch Bartholomew I in the Holy Sepulcher. Both men like and respect each other and in their friendship witnessed to the respect and cooperation that should mark ecumenical relations.

The Pope brings interfaith dialogue to a region plagued by atrocities committed along religious lines.

Arriving in Jordan with old friends from other faiths, Pope Francis begins his Holy Land tour with an unprecedented move. It's the first time in Vatican history that a Pope has invited a Jewish rabbi and an Islamic leader on board an official delegation making its way to one of the world's holiest, and most contentious cities for worship in unison.

The stated reason for Pope Francis’ visit to Jordan, Israel and Palestine was to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s pilgrimage to the region and his revolutionary gesture of reconciliation with the leader of the Orthodox world, Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople.

Pope Bergoglio expresses his desire to discuss the Petrine Primacy. “Divisions remain between the churches, even after the first embrace Christians continue to be persecuted, there is the ecumenicalism of sufferance. Like the stone of the sepulchre, we must cast aside the obstacles that stand between Christians.” Francis and Bartholomew embraced in the same place that the historic embrace between Pope Paul VI and Athenagoras I took place 50 years ago.

Pope Francis’ “religious” and “spiritual” visit sent out two powerful messages to the Israeli and Palestinian people, the Middle East and the international community yesterday. The “creativity” of the Pope’s gestures is not in any way out of line with the objectives of this pilgrimage: praying in silence in front of a wall and inviting the leaders of two States to the Vatican to pray for peace does not imply a road map is being set out or political and diplomatic strategies imposed.

The first major event of Francis’ visit to the Holy Land will be his meeting with the Jordanian leadership: “I have profound respect and esteem for the Muslim community”. The Pope sent out an appeal to the religious community. “You have become the entire world’s conscience,” King Abdullah said.

In his homily at the Mass celebrated at the international stadium in Jordan’s capital, Amman, Francis said: We ought, therefore, to show concrete signs of humility, fraternity, forgiveness and reconciliation … The way of peace is strengthened if we realize that we are all of the same stock”.