Francis will take rabbi and Muslim leader with him on trip

Josephine Mckenna washingtonpost.com "VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis will be accompanied on his first visit to the Middle East by Argentine Rabbi Abraham Skorka and Muslim leader Omar Abboud — two friends from Buenos Aires. It is the first time a pope has made an official visit accompanied by members of other faiths, and it underscores the interfaith focus of Francis’ trip to the Holy Land, the Vatican said Thursday (May 15). 'This dimension of interreligious dialogue has great significance,' the Vatican’s official spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, told the media. Skorka, rector of the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary, and Abboud, president of the Institute for Interreligious Dialogue in Buenos Aires, are part of the official delegation for the May 24-26 trip, which will include Jordan, the West Bank and Israel. Both men are longtime friends and collaborators from Francis’ days as archbishop of Buenos Aires." to read more: washingtonpost.com