Pilgrimage or Politics?

Expectations are high for the pope's visit. During what could be his most important trip so far Christians, Jews and Muslims are looking towards the pope with very different hopes and aspirations. Rome's relations with both the world's Muslim and Jewish communities have been rather rocky since German-born Benedict XVI took office.

The first leg of his trip is Jordan and the country's Bishop Salem Al Sayegh stressed that it was not a political visit. "This is a pilgrimage," Al Saysegh said ahead of the trip.

Pope Benedict himself has announced that what he wanted was to visit the countries of the origin of Christendom as a pilgrim – not as a politician. And that means: not as a mediator between the Muslim and the Christian world, not as an arbiter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But it's unlikely that he will be able to avoid the burden of politics. In fact, the pope is in for a tightrope walk in a politically and religiously explosive context. The May 8-15 trip risks being more sensitive than those of his predecessors as Benedict has record of alienating Muslims and Jews alike while taking a more conservative stance towards relations with other faiths.

The Vatican's ambassador to Jordan, Nuntius Francis-Assisi Chulikat, tried to downplay the opposition that Benedict is facing from many parts of Muslim society.

"He is coming upon direct invitation from the King. So he is an official guest and he's more than welcome. In spite of the dissident voices that we hear from certain groups," Chulikat says.

But those dissident voices are raising concerns that are shared by many Muslims. In a 2006 speech Pope Benedict quoted a byzantine King as describing the Prophet Muhammad's teachings as violent and inhumane.

Even if the incident was later described as being merely the use of a quotation, it was enough to cause a major scandal and alienate many – even within the Roman Catholic Church. Jordanian Islamist leaders have denounced the visit, calling upon the pope to apologise for the Regensburg speech.

The trip will then take Benedict to Israel, but in relations with the Jewish world, the pontiff has proved to have an equally unlucky hand. He reintroduced the Jewish community into his annual Good Friday prayer which is seen by many critics as a return to a patronising and arrogant notion of Christian supremacy.

Earlier this year, the Williamson scandal added further to the rifts. The pope lifted the excommunication of British Bishop Richard Williamson who had publicly denied the Holocaust. A senior Vatican official said the issue had put the pope in a weak position and that Israel could "take full advantage of it."

Yet another controversial issue is the plan to canonize former Pope Pius XII – who's been heavily criticised for his failure to act and speak out against Nazi crimes in Germany during the 1930s and 40s.

To stress his own commitment to the Jewish-Catholic reconciliation, the pope is scheduled to visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Israel – but in a diplomatic move he will skip the adjoining museum with its documentation on Pius XII.