BY Ian Dunn | May 30 | 
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Pope chooses June 8 for prayer meeting with presidents of Israel and Palestine
Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will join Pope Francis for an afternoon praying for peace at the Vatican on June 8, the Vatican has announced.
The Pope had invited both men to ‘my home’ to pray during his recent trip to the Middle East. Speaking from the Biblical town of Bethlehem, the Holy Father said: “Building peace is difficult, but living without peace is a constant torment.”
Both men immediately agreed, and subsequently approved the June 8 date, the Vatican confirmed in a statement.
The Pope has stressed that he is not seeking to jumpstart peace negotiations, but merely bring the two sides together to pray. He said he had arranged for a rabbi and a Muslim cleric to lead the prayers, along with him.
“It will be a prayer meeting,” he told reporters on his flight home from Jerusalem on Monday. “It’s not to do mediation or find solutions. We’ll meet just to pray, and then everyone will go home. But I think praying is important, praying together.”
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