On the final day of Pope Benedict’s Middle East tour he preached a message of hope for all mankind at one of the holiest sites in Christendom, telling the crowd at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem that "love is stronger than death".

After praying at the Stone of Anointing where it is believe the body of Jesus Christ was prepared for burial he said: "The empty tomb speaks to us of hope, the hope that does not disappoint because it is the gift of the spirit of life."

It was a powerful message given where Jesus was nailed to a cross, died, was buried and then rose from the dead. The 82-year-old Pontiff spoke of the empty tomb of the resurrected Jesus as "the very heart of the church".

Christians of all denominations gathered in the ancient church inside Jerusalem's walled Old City to hear the Pope speak.

Yesterday, he met with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and discussed the Middle East peace process. It’s reported talks went well and with a good atmosphere between the two men, despite the PM objecting to a two-state resolution, which the Pope has openly called for.

It’s a positive close to a trip that started shakily with Muslims feeling the Pope didn’t go far enough to apologise for remarks about Islam. The Pope also had to tread carefully around the topic of the Holocaust after relations had been strained since WW2.

Today ends the eight-day tour of Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Benedict the Sixteenth returns to the Vatican today.

Thursday 14 May

Pope Benedict the sixteenth greeted tens of thousands of followers in the town Jesus grew up in with a message of reconciliation this morning.

Over 40,000 people waved yellow and white Vatican flags and chanted in Italian "Benedetto" and "Viva il Papa". The Pope chose to lead his biggest mass on his tour of the Middle East in Nazareth. In this city in northern Israel’s Galilee region, the people of one of the countries largest Arab and Christian community live side by side.

Christian and Muslim residents were urged by the Pope to overcome recent strife and "reject the destructive power of hatred and prejudice."

Earlier this decade, Muslim activists outraged Christians when they built an unauthorised mosque next to the Basilica of the Annunciation, where Christians believe the Angel Gabriel foretold the birth of Jesus. Israel later tore down the mosque. Muslim activists also have periodically marched through the city in shows of strength meant to intimidate Christians.

In his Mass on Mount Precipice, where Christian tradition says a mob tried to throw Jesus off a cliff, the Pope spoke of the need to find peace and reconcilliation: "Let everyone reject the destructive power of hatred and prejudice, which kills men's souls before it kills their bodies."

In Bethlehem yesterday the pontiff spoke on one of the most fragile aspects of his trip - the Palestinian plight under Israeli occupation. He showed his support once more to the two-state peace resolution between Palestine and Israel.

Later today, he may have to face the consequences of his words because he's scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu, who still resists the idea of an independent Palestinian state.

The third day of the Pope's tour of the Holy Land has seen the pontiff travel to the West Bank town of Jesus’ birth.

Bethlehem, a town steeped in Christian history and marred by violence, was the spot where the Pope conducted Mass and called for a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Speaking from Manger Square, 100 yards from where Jesus is said to have been born in a stable, the Pope drew applause from worshippers when he said: "My heart goes out to the pilgrims from war-torn Gaza."

There he was met by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who denounced Israel's "apartheid wall" as part of efforts by the Jewish state to drive out Palestinian Christians and Muslims.

Thousands of Christians from Bethlehem have left after a Palestinian uprising resulted in an Israeli security clampdown and construction of the barrier that runs through and around the West Bank. In the late 1940’s in Israel, Christians made up about 30,000 of the population. Now the Christian community has fallen to a mere 10,000.

Manger Square is a sensitive spot in the West Bank, Palestinians there face controversial pressures. Christians are squeezed between two fundamentalists threads of Judaism and Islam and caught in the conflict in the Gaza strip. But the movement of people is also restricted thanks to the wall adding to the feeling the community is dwindling.

It leaves many Christians wondering why they should stay in the area and many, especially the young people, move abroad.

The Church of Bethlehem is also intimidated by the conflict around them and often is left voiceless in this war zone. The Palestinian President who, like most Palestinians, is Muslim, described the hardships faced by his people:

"On this Holy Land, there are those who continue to build separation walls, instead of bridges, and who try with the occupation forces to compel both Christians and Muslims alike to leave the country, so that our holy places change into mere archaeological sites, rather than places of worship, alive and bustling with believers."

The trip to the West Bank was an important moment for the Pope to act sensitively towards the situation there without fuelling the anger some Israelis felt when his speech on Monday did not go far enough to ease the tension between Catholics and Jews.

Yesterday on the Mount of Olives, where Jesus was arrested, the Pope spoke of the suffering of Christians in the Holy Land. He began by proclaiming, "Christ is risen, alleluia!" which was received by applause and the response, "Christ is truly risen!"

Benedict the sixteenth said he wished to "acknowledge the difficulties, the frustration, and the pain and suffering which so many of you have endured as a result of the conflicts which have afflicted these lands, and the bitter experiences of displacement which so many of your families have known and - God forbid - may yet know.

I hope my presence here is a sign that you are not forgotten, that your persevering presence and witness are indeed precious in God’s eyes and integral to the future of these lands."

Tuesday 12 May

The Pope will meet leading Muslim and Jewish clerics when he visits holy sites in Jerusalem today.

The second day of his five-day trip to Israel and the West Bank will see Pope Benedict the sixteenth visit the Western Wall - also known as the Wailing Wall. He'll also visit the site of Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples before his crucifixion and resurrection before saying Mass for thousands of worshippers at the Garden of Gethsemane.

Touching down in Tel Aviv yesterday the Pontiff said he stands in a place of huge significance for the Christian faith: “In a long line of Christian pilgrims to these shores, a line that stretches back to the earliest centuries of the Church’s history ... I come, like so many others before me, to pray at the holy places, to pray especially for peace - peace here in the Holy Land, and peace throughout the world.”

Today, after meeting the Grand Mufti, Palestinians' senior Muslim cleric, at the Dome of the Rock which dominates the Old City, he will meet Israel's two chief rabbis at the Western Wall, a remnant of the Roman-era Temple that is Judaism's holiest place.

Yesterday the Pope delivered a speech attempting to heal the centuries long rift between Jews and Catholics. Speaking at Jerusalem's Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, the Pope honouring those who died in the Holocaust said: “Sadly anti-Semitism continues to rear its ugly head in many parts of the world. This is totally unacceptable.”

It was a particularly poignant speech for the German leader of the world's billion Roman Catholics as he was a member of the Hitler Youth when enrolment was compulsory.

He also gave his support to the "two state solution'' for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict backing the creation of two countries, one for each of the rival groups.

The Pope begins the most delicate part of his trip to the Middle East today when he visits Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Benedict the sixteenth leaves Jordan after spending three days there where he spoke about his hope for better relations between Christians and Muslims. But the pontiff failed in his attempts to heal a rift between the Vatican and Islam. Muslim leaders are disappointed he didn't apologise for the remarks he made three years ago when he quoted a medieval text describing the Prophet Mohammed's legacy as "evil and inhumane".

Now over the next five days the pontiff will visit sacred sites in the footsteps of Jesus and hold talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. But this is a tricky time for the Pope to visit the Holy Land. He angered many in Israel when he lifted the excommunication of a bishop who had denied the Holocaust.

Catholic-Jewish relations have been haunted by the Holocaust and the question of what the Catholic Church did, or failed to do, about it. In a bid to ease any underlying tension with the Jewish community, this afternoon the pope visits Jerusalem's Yad Vashem memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.

The Pope will later celebrate Mass in Jerusalem and Nazareth, and visit some hugely sensitive sites and most sacred places in Jerusalem for Jews and Muslims. He will also visit a Palestinian refugee camp close to Bethlehem and meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

In Israel, to prepare for the visit, security forces are stepping up their efforts in operation "White Robe", with tens of thousands of law-enforcement officers deployed and entire sections of Jerusalem to be shut down.

Life for Christians in the Holy Land

Christians in the Holy Land are dwarfed by Jewish and Muslim populations and young Christians are increasingly leaving to seek their futures elsewhere, especially those in the Palestinian territories and east Jerusalem.

Christians say they are treated with suspicion by both Jews and Muslims and feel caught in conflict between them.

The Holy Land's Christians mainly consist of Greek Catholics, Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox, with smaller contingents of Armenians and Assyrians.

The most fraught Christian community in the Holy Land is in the Gaza Strip, where some 3,800 Christians live among 1.4 million Muslims. And Christians there weathered the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The Pope will need to reach out to the people of the region and offer for the Catholic Church to do all it can to help the stalled peace process.

Friday 9 May

The pontiff has described himself as a "pilgrim of peace" as he seeks to strengthen ties with Muslims and Jews and give support to his dwindling Christian flock in the region.

He begins his trip in Jordan, then to Israel and the West Bank - regions plagued with tension, mistrust and violence but steeped in the history of the Christian faith.

But as the Pope, who is the second pontiff to make an official visit in Israel, arrives in the Middle East he greets a Christian community that's diminishing.

Before the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, up to 20 per cent of the population of the Palestinian lands where Jesus Christ lived and died was Christian. Now that number has dropped to only two per cent.

Life in these territories for some Christians can be difficult. They are caught in increasing conflict between Jews and Muslims.

The situation is particularly strained in the West Bank, where the relatively well-educated and prosperous Christian community has left Bethlehem, a city with a growing Muslim majority.

The first leg of the Pope's Middle East tour will take him to Jordan, where Catholics are less than two percent of the population. But the Pope says he wants to give Christians living in the fragile region a new hope.

And amidst the challenges Christians face in the Middle East the trip could be a controversial visit for the Pope himself. Benedict will have to overcome criticism after offending both Jews and Muslims since his papacy began in 2005.

In 2006 Pope Benedict angered Muslims by quoting the opinion of a Byzantine emperor that the Prophet Mohammed contributed nothing new to the world that was not "inhuman and evil". He insisted the words did not represent his own views and had been taken out of context.

Now many Vatican observers see this trip as the most challenging foreign visit by Pope Benedict to date. However this has not been enough to quiet the uproar he caused as The Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan last week demanded he apologise for remarks he made before he is allowed entry into Jordan.

On Saturday he will give a speech in the Al-Husseini Mosque, the biggest in the Jordanian capital Amman and he will also meet Muslim leaders there. This is the second time Benedict himself has visited a mosque after the Blue Mosque. And this is hugely important because Jordan is setting itself up as the seat of Christian-Muslim relations.

Pope Benedict is also expected to celebrate mass in a soccer stadium Sunday in Amman, before he leaves for Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The Muslim, Jewish and Christian world wait to see if the Pope can reach out to the marginalized Christian people and bring about a continued dialogue of peace.