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.

Jerusalem awaits Pope’s Francis’ arrival in the Holy Land tomorrow, amidst a sea of over one thousand Vatican and Israeli flags. The first port of call in the Pope’s Middle Eastern voyage will be Amman, followed by Bethlehem and finally the Holy City of the three monotheistic faiths. The white and gold drapes with the Holy See insignia adorn the Notre Dame Centre, the Christian neighbourhood and the Shuk marketplace and run around the walls of the Old City, until the King David and to Rehavia, up until the front of the presidential residence, where Shimon Peres lives.

When Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew meet in Jerusalem on May 25-26, 2014, they will recall the meeting of their predecessors Pope Paul IV and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras in the same city in 1964. In the midst of prayer and recollection in the Holy Places, the leaders of the Catholic Church and Orthodox Church will give thanks to God for the dramatic change in the relationship between their churches in the past fifty years. They will recall the prayer of the Lord for this disciples ‘that they all be one' (John 17:21).