Article: Sometimes showing up is enough.(Pope John Paul II)(Brief Article)

Quneitra, Syria

In the middle of a trip dedicated to religious unity, Pope John Paul II took time for one of the most explicitly political acts of his pontificate. He visited a Syrian town on the Golan Heights that was destroyed by the Israelis in 1973.

In effect, the visit to Quneitra, 40 miles outside Damascus, handed an enormous propaganda victory to critics of Israeli policies in the Middle East.

The ostensible purpose for John Paul's visit was to allow him to pray for peace in a Greek Orthodox church. But there are many places to pray other than the site Syrians have invoked for three decades as evidence of Israeli atrocities.

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