Knight's departure!

The departed depart, but their words and actions remain as a witness to their continued life after their death, with the knowledge they left behind that is beneficial and the memory that is uplifting.

With the passing of Pope Francis, humanity loses a towering figure of humanity, faith, and values. He was unafraid, in word and deed, to face the censure of the critics, harshly criticizing the criminals for the crimes they committed in Gaza and the raging war of extermination, most of whose victims were children.

In 2014, the Holy Father visited the City of Peace, and said and did things that upset the occupation, which tried in vain to change the Via Dolorosa that His Holiness walked next to the wall.

In remembrance, respect, and appreciation of the noble stances of the great departed, I republish what I wrote at the time about that visit, which was a battle fought by His Holiness, with a level of patience, certainty, and faith that few leaders in the Arab and Islamic worlds have ever matched.

The Pope leads a demonstration against the wall with solemn silence!

He stood and made others stop, he cried and made others cry in a moment of resounding silence, recorded by the lenses of photographers who came from four corners of the earth to cover one of the most important visits made by His Holiness the Supreme Pontiff to the cradle of messages, the land of prophecies, and the crossroads of civilizations. He led a demonstration in solemn silence, leading the faithful - Christians and Muslims - at the wall on whose walls were written suffering, at whose thresholds blood bled, and on whose stones and cement, reinforced with the arrogance of blind force, emergency borders were drawn, and on whose sides false truths were imposed, and under whose foundations the values of truth and freedom were buried, and on whose ruins concrete pillars of hatred and racism were erected.

His Holiness' sudden, off-the-cuff disembarkation from his car and toward the wall was a demonstration led by the Supreme Pontiff, in the name of all believers and free people in the world, against everything the wall represents in terms of an assault on freedoms, the denial of rights, the seizure of land, the uprooting of trees, and the loss of lives. This was a message that reached all concerned. Although His Holiness expressed it in words that touched the concerns and suffering of the Palestinians and inspired hope for the achievement of their goals and objectives, his demonstration against the wall was a practical expression of his solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle to achieve their freedom and establish their state.

His silence almost became a language, his kind and gentle hand almost became a pickaxe shaking the pillars of the wall, and his prayers, praises and good supplications ascending to the heavens almost became a balm healing the wounds of those walking the path of suffering, those guarding Jerusalem and the environs of Jerusalem; Christians and Muslims alike, unharmed by the hardships that befell them.

Anyone who followed the Israeli media, which was broadcasting the Pope's visit live, may have noticed that they turned away from the moment the Pope deviated from the script and walked toward the wall, and instead re-broadcast recorded footage of the visit for the five minutes during which His Holiness demonstrated at the wall.

A few minutes before the Pope's motorcade arrived, the children of Aida refugee camp were enough for them, moments after the soldiers had finished whitewashing the wall of slogans, to rewrite it with slogans of freedom, until the Pope arrived before the ink had even dried!

It remains to be said that the Pope's silence and his prayer at the wall were surprising, shocking, and resounding. It was a land battle, a demonstration of live ammunition of faith, an action on the ground, not just words uttered in the open air. It was an action that no leader or world leader had ever performed before him. Yes, his voice, his silence, and his prayer at the wall were the pinnacle of faith.