Pope Francis today (May 16, 2015) praised Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as an "angel of peace" during a meeting at the Vatican, the Times of Israel website reports.
Francis made the compliment today during the traditional exchange of gifts at the end of an official audience in the Apostolic Palace. He presented Abbas with a medallion and explained that it represented the angel of peace "destroying the bad spirit of war." Francis told Abbas the gift was appropriate, since "you are an angel of peace."
Abbas is in town for the canonization tomorrow of two new saints from what was then Ottoman-ruled Palestine. It also comes just a few days after the Vatican finalized a bilateral treaty with the "state of Palestine," making explicit its recognition of Palestinian statehood.
Abbas, for his part, offered Francis relics of the two new saints. The Vatican's new bilateral treaty with Palestine has angered Israel -- which is opposed to an independent Palestine state -- now threatening it will soon take punitive action against the Vatican, after it determines its "next step."
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