Of Different Faiths, a Crowd Cheers the Pontiff With a Single Voice

The first word came from two little boys perched on a stone wall above the crowd gathering behind a police barricade on Christian Quarter Road. Squealing with excitement, the boys triggered a mad dash as those below pushed and shoved, scrambling for a glimpse of Pope John Paul II.

It was the first of several false alarms for those waiting Sunday for John Paul in the twisting alleyways of Jerusalem’s walled Old City. But finally, the pontiff traveled past this junction, although so fleetingly and at such a distance--about 100 yards--that most saw only his white sport-utility vehicle and not the holy man himself.

It didn’t matter. For a brief moment, the crowd--consisting of Christians, Muslims and a few Jews, of tourists, residents and pilgrims--clapped and cheered in merry harmony, a remarkably rare sight in this fractured Holy Land.

Rustin Silverstein, 23, an American studying Jewish history at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, joked that he had become a “pope groupie” during John Paul’s weeklong pilgrimage, managing to spot him three times, including twice on Sunday.

“It would be incredible enough to see the pope at any time but to see him here, in this place, it’s history,” Silverstein said. John Paul’s visit, he said, was a “great thing for Jews, for Christians, for everyone. This pope is a friend of all of us.”

Others were equally enthusiastic.

“It’s a blessing for our brothers the Christians,” said Tarek Mohammed, 30, a candy store owner. “But for Muslims too, he reflects a spirit of brotherhood.”

American tourists John and Priscilla Rankin, visiting Jerusalem for a week from North Carolina, said the papal visit and its massive security detail had caused them some minor inconvenience, from traffic jams to crowded restaurants. But mostly, the pontiff’s presence gave an extra dimension to a trip planned long ago, said John Rankin, a writer and teacher.

“It was kind of a bonus,” said Rankin, 59, as he and his wife disentangled themselves from the cheerful crowd, some of whose members waved Palestinian or Vatican flags. “We found it very exciting to be here at the same time as the pope.”

Still, throughout John Paul’s final day here, which took him from Judaism’s venerated Western Wall to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the landmark Dome of the Rock, there were a few grumbles.

Some Palestinian Christians said they were miffed that tight Israeli security kept them from seeing enough--or indeed, anything--of the pope. Shopkeepers complained that the same precautions kept customers away. And a smattering of residents was indifferent to the papal visit or even hostile.

Near the Dome of the Rock, Abdul Rahman Fadel, 26, accused the pope of wanting to visit the golden-topped mosque in order to stake a claim for Christians.

“He wants to strengthen the Christian presence in Jerusalem,” Fadel said, glowering at the pope across the vast mosque compound known in Arabic as Haram al Sharif, the “sacred enclosure.” “No one has any right to the city except Muslims.”

But Sheik Yasser Qleibo, a devout Muslim whose readings of the Koran are broadcast frequently over local radio, said he welcomed the pope’s visit to the Muslim sites. The stop, though brief, was an important show of respect for the Jerusalem mosques and for Islam itself by the leader of the world’s 1 billion Roman Catholics, Qleibo said.

Meanwhile, near the Holy Sepulcher, a cavernous church where Christians battle each other for every inch of space--prompting a local Catholic scholar to term it a wholly “un-Christian” site--the pope’s Mass was being broadcast, loudly, in Jamil Samara’s beauty shop.

No, the owner said, he was not swept up in the spirit of the papal visit, despite the blaring radio.

“We just want to know when he’s leaving,” Samara said as he cut a customer’s hair. “We feel sad and a little angry because, we are Christians, but we have not been able to see him. The security is too much. He’s coming to see the people, but he’s seeing only soldiers.”

Elsewhere in the Old City, some wondered sadly whether the pope’s message of peace and brotherhood would produce any real change in a land whose people sometimes seem divided in every conceivable way.

“It might be a positive trip, but we don’t know yet,” said George Katanacho, 33, a Greek Catholic, as he waited for the pope with his young son and daughter, all dressed up for the occasion. “If he succeeds to unite Christians, Muslims and Jews here, that will make it so positive for us. But I think it will take time to see the results.”