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”.

The excitement over the visit of Pope Francis to Jerusalem is gradually building as the hours pass and the moment of his arrival approaches. One sees it in subtle signs: an intensification of security checks, heightened police attention in particularly sensitive areas (such as Temple Mount - or al-Aqsa Mosque esplanade - and the area around the Cenacle, also known as the “Upper Room,” where tradition has it that the Last Supper was celebrated).

The great enthusiasm through which Jordanian Muslims are expressing their welcome to Pope Francis is indicative of a basic fact that he is different. Different from the other four Popes who had visited Amman since 1964, and all had European ancestry. This pontiff had a third world background like many Jordanians, as he had worked as a chemist technician in a pharmaceutical company before joining the seminary. He shares with many Jordanians the trauma of the poor working class communities since he worked as a floor janitor in a multi-storey office complex.

Omar Abboud, the Argentinean Muslim who will accompany Francis in the Holy Land, describes the Pope’s decision to have a Jew and Muslim accompany him as “one of the strongest gestures” the world has seen.

“It’s a long time since the world has had such a strong spiritual leader”, Omar Abboud, the Muslim from Buenos Aires who will accompany the Pope on his “pilgrimage of prayer” in the Holy Land, told me on the eve of the Francis’ departure for the Holy Land.