The Israeli and Palestinian presidents began an unprecedented meeting with Pope Francis today (June 8, 2014) to pray together in the hope that the gesture will relaunch the Middle East peace process, the Reuters website reports.
Francis -- who made the surprise invitation to Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas last month during his trip to the Holy Land -- welcomed the two leaders in front of the modest guest house where he has decided to reside after renouncing the spacious papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace.
It was the first public meeting between the two presidents in more than a year and was taking place more than a month after United States-led peace talks collapsed amid bitter mutual recrimination.
The three were accompanied by Patriarch Bartholomew -- spiritual head of the world's Orthodox Christians -- and were then driven together in a white mini-van to what the Vatican has called a "neutral" site in the Vatican gardens with no religious symbols. There, they began to pray for peace in the Middle East.
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