Pope Benedict XVI to visit Middle East

Pope Benedict is off to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories this week. His May 8-15 visit may be the biggest moment of his papacy thus far.
In his first four years as pope, Benedict has not been known for his savvy PR skills. Most recently, he angered a lot of church moderates and Jews for rehabilitating a Holocaust-denying bishop.
But he's had touches of real interpersonal brilliance, as when he visited Turkey in 2006 and the United States last year.
But this is the pontiff's first visit to an Arab nation, and the visit comes at a time when the peace process between Israel and the Palestinian people is nearly dead. At the same time, Christians are fleeing the Middle East, including Iraq, because of violence and repression.
Benedict also travels in the footsteps of John Paul II, who was the first pope to enter the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria. John Paul uttered these words: "For all the times that Muslims and Christians have offended one another, we need to seek forgiveness from the Almighty and to offer each other forgiveness."
That was eight years ago today. So much ugliness has happened in the Middle East since then, Benedict will have his work cut out for him if he hopes to change the dynamics.