Pope continues homage to Damascus

The Middle East political passions and religious drama stirred up by Pope John Paul II’s visit to Syria have often seemed to obscure what he has stressed is the reason for his pilgrimage.

But today, at least briefly, the focus was on St Paul the Apostle - to whom John Paul has looked for inspiration throughout his papacy.

The third day of John Paul’s four-day visit to Syria included a stop at the Church of St Paul on the Wall.

The shrine was built in the 1930s on the spot, tradition says, where St Paul fled over the walls of Damascus in the first century to escape Jews angered at his passionate attempts to sway them to Christianity.

The visit comes a day after John Paul became the first Roman Catholic pope to step inside a mosque. The Omayyad Mosque in old Damascus stands on a site that once held a church.

The pope, like many Christians who visit, wanted to see a shrine inside where the head of St John the Baptist is believed buried.

The Syrian Muslim leaders who met him at the mosque, along with Vatican officials, characterised the visit as a historic step in improving Christian-Muslim relations.

Being inspired by history, not making it, was his main goal in Syria, the pope has said.

‘‘I come as a pilgrim of faith, continuing my jubilee pilgrimage to some of the places especially connected with God’s self-revelation and his saving actions,’’ he said the day he arrived.

‘‘My ministry as bishop of Rome is linked in a special way to the witness of St Paul, a witness crowned by his martyrdom in Rome.’’

At the St Paul on the Wall church, icons show St Paul being lowered in a basket over the wall to safety.

The saint made it back to Jerusalem, from where, after a period of study and reflection, he embarked on travels throughout the Roman empire to preach the gospel. He was believed to have been executed in Rome in 67 AD because of his preaching.

St Paul’s journeys inspired John Paul’s own remarkably wide travels.

Paul, then a Jew known as Saul, had been sent by Jewish leaders in Jerusalem who wanted him to combat the spread of Christianity in Damascus. The Bible says that on the road south of the city, he was blinded by a vision of Jesus Christ, becoming a believer in that moment.

The pope’s drive to St Paul on the Wall was to take him past another spot associated with the saint’s life the underground Chapel of St Ananias, believed to be the place where Paul, following his vision, was baptised by Ananias.

The dungeon-like, stone church is down a 23-step flight of stairs, apparently too difficult a climb for the 80-year-old pope, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease.

Even an afternoon visit to the Quneitra on the Golan Heights also was linked to St Paul.

Tradition says he passed through Quneitra on his way from Jerusalem. But for

John Paul, modern Middle East politics shaped the stop.

The Greek Orthodox church where John Paul was to offer a prayer is, like the rest of the city, in ruins.

The Syrian government says Israeli forces sacked the city before handing it back to Syria in 1974. Israel, which still holds most of the rest of the Golan says it was damaged in fighting.

Syria refuses to rebuild Quneitra, saying it should stand as a monument to Israeli crimes until the entire Golan, seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, is back in Syrian hands.

Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations have stalled.

John Paul has called again and again during his Syrian trip for peace and mutual understanding in the region. He is persisting despite Arab bitterness and anger. Syrian President Bashar Assad on Friday likened Israelis to betrayers of Jesus.