For more photos from the Science Fair see Photo Galleries, above.

Mark Dion, 6th-grader from Immaculate Heart of Mary School, shows Syrena Prytko his project about static electricity.

WORCESTER – The results of a study being conducted on Catholic schools in the southern part of the diocese will be released next month, said Superintendent Delma Josephson.
She said the study will provide a clear view of “our current reality” to assist in future planning.
Findings from schools in the greater Worcester area, as well as the northern part of the diocese, will be available in the fall, she said.
The study is being done by the Wisconsin-based Meitler Consultants Inc., a firm that specializes in collecting and analyzing data from Catholic parishes and school systems.
Meitler, so far, has collected overall diocesan statistics, as well as data from individual schools. The company has also interviewed priests and school principals in the South County, according to a communication sheet issued by the school department. The report in June will include data from schools in Webster, Southbridge and Uxbridge.
The elementary schools in those communities are:  St. Anne, parish school of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish; St. Joseph, parish school of St. Joseph Basilica; and St. Louis, parish school of St. Louis Parish, all in Webster; Trinity Catholic Academy,  parish school of Blessed John Paul II Parish in Southbridge; and a regional school, Our Lady of the Valley in Uxbridge.
General input from the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission has also been sought by the firm.
Among the areas being considered are school enrollment figures, student demographics, finances, school enrollment capacity, in addition to parish enrollment and sacramental numbers.
“The data and the analysis will help make clear the issues Catholic schools have to face to be viable and thriving; and the analysis will sharpen our understanding of the strategic questions that need to be answered moving forward,” according to the communication sheet.
Initially, the focus was only going to be on South County schools. But the diocesan Catholic Schools Board  recommended broadening the findings to include the entire diocese, Mrs. Josephson said.
She said long-range planning is impossible without good data.
She noted that, at this point, the focus is not on closing or consolidating any schools. Rather, it’s about “strategic planning.”
“It’s not about closing anything, it’s not about opening anything,” she added. “Who knows what will happen as a result of the data?”
Bishop McManus sent a letter to pastors and school administrators in February asking for their cooperation and stating that the findings would “help identify where future planning is necessary to sustain existing schools as well as where there is potential and need for future growth.”
Catholic schools throughout the United States have struggled with declining enrollment in recent years, which have led to closures.
During the 2002-2003 school year, there were 8,000 Catholic schools, according to the National Catholic Education Association. This year there are 6,685. Several elementary schools in the northern part of the diocese have closed within this time frame.
Mrs. Josephson said enrollment figures for the four Central Catholic schools, which includes three high schools and one elementary school, are “trending very close to last year.”
She said figures still need to be collected for the parochial schools. “I have no idea at this stage in the game about the individual parish schools,” she said. “It’s a little early.”

WORCESTER – Amanda Bollacker came to her graduation ceremony hoping to be inspired by Boston FBI leader Richard DesLauriers. She wasn’t disappointed.
“I enjoyed how he talked about the values of the college and his accomplishments here,” the Assumption College graduate said, standing in the rain with her classmates and family members outside the Plourde Recreation Center following the May 11 ceremony.
“It showed how the values here will bring us to great places if we follow them,” Bollacker said.
DesLauriers, a 1982 graduate of Assumption, has enjoyed a distinguished career at the FBI, leading up to his present position as Special Agent in Charge of the agency’s Boston Field Division. In the last three years alone, his office has presided over several notable cases – the arrest of mob leader James “Whitey” Bulger, the naming of likely suspects in the 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art heist, and the Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation into the recent Boston Marathon bombings.
In his talk to the 605 Assumption graduates, DesLauriers did not give details about the high-profile cases that have defined his career. He didn’t mention the alleged Marathon bombers by name, and he steered clear of controversies regarding the burial of one deceased suspect and Boston Police Superintendent Ed Davis’ comments questioning the FBI’s inability to share information about suspected terrorist threats connected to the Marathon.
DesLauriers focused his talk on three key lessons he learned at Assumption – and how they prepared him for a successful career in law enforcement.
He said his Assumption education taught him to think logically and in a reasoned and analytical manner.
“My coursework provided me with a foundation of organized thought derived from the greatest ‘thinkers’ of the ages,” he told the crowd, assembled under a huge outdoor tent near Assumption’s sports fields.
“In the FBI, this skill set has allowed me to form well-founded conclusions culled from the analysis of complex fact patterns, so that the FBI Agents under my command can undertake the most effective investigative actions possible to mitigate the numerous national security and criminal threats faced by our nation on a daily basis in the post-9/11 world. Without the ability to think logically, and in a reasoned and analytical manner, I would not be effective in this critically important mission. Each of you also possesses this critically important skill set, which will pave the road to your professional success.”
DesLauriers said Assumption helped him develop strong writing skills – which FBI agents need to ensure that their reports stand up to the highest degree of scrutiny in federal courts.
“The writing skills I perfected through my liberal arts education at Assumption have no doubt been one of the keys to being an effective special agent of the FBI, and this skill will also be a key to your professional success in whatever field you choose,” he said.
Third, he pointed out, Assumption gave him a “moral compass.”
“This characteristic, in my opinion, is absolutely essential to success in the workplace, and to broader success in life itself,” DesLauriers said. “Possessing a moral compass is as vitally important today as it was when I graduated from Assumption College 31 years ago, especially in a world which today so often appears morally agnostic, and where clear lines differentiating right from wrong are frequently blurred by greed, pride, envy, and any other of the ‘seven deadly sins.’”
Assumption President Francesco Cesareo and Valedictorian Hannah-Lee Hilsman covered similar themes in their talks, pointing to the ways the college has helped prepare the class of 2013 for its journey.
“Today is a day of celebration, but also one of responsibility,” Cesareo said. “As you prepare to go forth from Assumption where your education has fostered a nobility of character, a mind open to infinite beauty, and a heart that banishes selfishness, along with the faculty, staff and administration I congratulate you on all that you have accomplished, and I challenge you to take what you have learned to live a life beyond the self by contributing your time and talent in service to the community so as to create a better world for future generations.”
Hilsman talked about how Assumption has instilled a sense of pride in being known as “Hounds” – short for Greyhounds, the school’s team nickname. Being a “Hound,” she said, means being part of a community whose values permeate the campus – its residence halls, academic programs, extra-curricular activities, football-tossing sessions in the Quad, and bonds of friendship and support.
“We have received an Assumption College education, an education that has shaped us into a community of contemplative, informed individuals with the skills and knowledge to work together to change the world,” Hilsman said. “We are – and always will be – Hounds.”
The graduation ceremony also included the awarding of honorary degrees – to DesLauriers; presidential historian Stephen F. Knott; and college benefactor and retired construction company owner  Raymond J. Lauring – and a blessing delivered by Bishop McManus.
After graduation, the class of 2013 marched across campus, dodging raindrops, getting ready to take on the world.
Amanda Bollacker, the Newington, Conn., graduate who was inspired by DesLauriers, celebrated with her family, wearing a mortarboard that she had decorated with a silver Sharpie pen. She had inscribed the words “I Made It, Dad,” dedicating the day to her late father Ron, who died in 2009.
Elsewhere in the crowd, Derek Campbell of Mashpee said he’s preparing to help out at his father’s restaurant this summer and move on to a career in sales. He was slapping hands, making jokes and looking forward to his future.
How does he feel?
“Stoked! Ready to make it happen,” he said, smiling, looking around at all the umbrellas. “Ready to keep it raining.”

Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish welcomed home  its native son Archbishop Michael W. Banach Sunday. Joy permeated the proceedings from the formal greetings at the beginning, to the children in traditional Polish dress presenting him with gifts at its conclusion. The parish which nurtured his vocation to the priesthood added to the homecoming with prayers and hymns sung by the Polish choir in its native tongue.
Archbishop Banach is home for a short time before he travels across the world to take up his new mission for the Church as apostolic nuncio to Papua New Guinea. There he will be the representative of Pope Francis.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States, represented Pope Francis at Sunday’s Mass. He told the congregation that they must be experiencing joy in seeing the fruit of their nurturing. He said that Archbishop Banach is very well prepared for this mission, so far from home.
“You have been sent by the Lord himself, and for the Lord from the Pope, in order to preach his word of the Gospel,” Archbishop Vigano told him.
As Archbishop Banach preached after the Gospel reading he told the congregation that “following Christ has a price” but it is what we Christians have to do.
Surrounded by family and friends, fellow priests and bishops, Archbishop Banach celebrated the Mass of Thanksgiving. He was ordained a bishop April 27 in the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican. He also marks 25 years in the priesthood this year.
Bishop McManus welcomed all and thanked the Holy Father for honoring the Diocese of Worcester with this most recent appointment of a priest of the diocese to a position of importance for the universal Church. The bishop also especially thanked Wallace and Jane Banach for the gift of their son to the Church.
Reflecting on the Gospel of the day, Archbishop Banach reminded people that, as Christians, they too are disciples of Christ and have an important mission, even though it is not always easy.
He recalled that in the day’s Gospel, Jesus thanked God the Father for the gift of disciples. Jesus said, “I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.”
Archbishop Banach said Jesus’  message was for countless generations, “not only those who hear the words in Galilee, Jerusalem, Corinth or Rome. He is speaking to me as a bishop, as a successor to the apostles, and he is speaking to us, all of us.”
How appropriate it is that we hear this message as we take up the great work of evangelization and renew this call in this Year of Faith, the archbishop said.
“We are called to live that word in the world with courage and with love,” he said.
“We are given the powerful example of someone who answered that call – in the first reading – with the stoning death of the first Christian martyr St. Stephen.
“The life and death of Stephen teaches us something vitally important. Following Christ has a price. And the reality is inescapable. Being one of Christ’s gifts, that is what we are, as flattering and as humbling as that may sound, carries a cost, sometimes a very steep cost. We discover that every day.
“We live in a time when Christ’s followers, God’s most cherished gift to his son, are increasingly under assault. People who call themselves Christians are being shunned, marginalized, discriminated against, persecuted. This is an age in which bishops in Syria are being kidnapped, when churches in Iraq and Nigeria are being bombed; and pastors in Iran are being imprisoned.”
But it happens close to home too, he said. He told the story of a high school track team in the Midwest that had just qualified for the state finals. The team was later disqualified because one of the athletes, after winning the track meet, pointed toward heaven in an expression of gratitude to God. “It was judged ‘excessive celebration,’” Archbishop Banach said.
“So you see the stoning of Stephen isn’t as remote or as ancient as it would appear, it happens today. There are countless Stephens around the globe being stoned in a thousand different ways. For what they say, what they believe, whom they worship.
“The Christian vocation demands personal testimony. Christ without the cross is a myth. Christians without persecution is a myth. And so we ask ourselves: Do we stand up at work for our faith? Do we stand up among our neighbors for our faith? Or do we give in to get respect?
“We are Christians and we are here today because we want to say ‘Yes Lord, I am not afraid to stand up for you; to believe in you; to witness to you.’
“And we do this because we have seen Jesus, the Lord, and we have been asked by him to proclaim this for Christ. To put it another way, we are men and women who have experienced Jesus and have the mission to proclaim him to others … all of us, bishops, priests, deacons, all of us.
“And there are countless Christians, who ever since Calvary, have preached Christ quietly by their lives. Generations of those Christians have lived in this parish. Not only prelates and priests, lay, single, married, it matters not. And today, Mother’s Day, it is singularly appropriate to remember gratefully those apostles whose apostolic task it has been, in imitating of Mary, to give Christ to the next generation,” he said.
“Bishops are successors of the apostles. Yet there is no one in this church who is not an apostle, who is not sent. We have no choice – except to refuse to be a Christian,” he said.
On Pentecost the 12 disciples discovered what “having no choice” meant. “They were filled with the Holy Spirit and they were so aware of God within them that they literally felt God. Such is the Easter experience,” he explained.
He went on to cite the example of Saint Ignatius as a way to follow Christ.
“If I am to be a good bishop, I too must experience the Risen Christ. I too must see Jesus. How do we realize that experience? I know of no better way than to walk with him every day.  In our prayers, let him unfold the Scriptures for us somewhat as he revealed them to the two discouraged disciples on the road to Emmaus. So that we too can cry out: ‘Were not our hearts burning within us when he talked to us on the road, when he opened the Scriptures to us?’”
He concluded with these words of encouragement: “Walk with him in our work. Let that profound insight of Saint Ignatius take possession of our souls, mainly, that we do not labor alone, that Christ is at work for us, with us, in every reality we experience. And let’s try our best to see in each person the image of Christ, crucified or risen. And let’s not be afraid of walking with Christ and of being seen walking with Christ. He is praying for us. He wants us to be one with him, just as he is one with the Father.”
After the Mass, Father Thaddeus X. Stachura, pastor of Our Lady of Czestochowa, invited people to a reception  that the parishioners had been cooking for all week to further celebrate the homecoming.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Listen to the Holy Spirit because he is giving people the good news that God loves them and can renew, purify and transform their lives, Pope Francis said.
The Holy Spirit is the living water that “quenches the thirst in our lives because he tells us that we are loved by God as his children, that we can love God as his children and with his grace we can live as children of God, like Jesus,” the pope said May 8 at his weekly general audience.
Speaking to more than 80,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis continued his audience talks about the affirmations of faith in the creed, focusing on the Holy Spirit.
“The Holy Spirit is an inexhaustible well of the life of God in us,” he said.
Every human person in every epoch and from all walks of life “desires a full and beautiful life, a life that is not threatened by death but that may mature and grow in fullness,” the pope said.
“Mankind is like a wanderer who, across the deserts of life, thirsts for water that’s alive, gushing and fresh, able to fully slacken his deep desire for light, love, beauty and peace. Everyone desires this,” he said.
It is Jesus who gives humanity this living water through the Holy Spirit, the pope said, “so that our lives may be guided, animated and nourished by God.”
“When we say a Christian is a spiritual person, what we mean is this: A Christian is someone who thinks and acts according to God, according to the Holy Spirit,” he said.
But, he asked, “do we think and act according to God or do we let ourselves be led by so many other things?”
All Christians must reflect on this question and honestly answer in their hearts whether they are listening to God or are distracted, he added.
The living water of the Holy Spirit, the pope said, is a gift from the resurrected Christ “who dwells in us, purifies us, renews us, transforms us so that we can share in the life of God who is love.”
That is why St. Paul affirmed in his Letter to the Galatians that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control,” he said.
The Holy Spirit brings people into divine life as children of God where they can live, as “true children, in a relationship of intimacy, freedom, and faith in the love and mercy of God,” he said.
Living as children of God lets people see with Christ’s eyes, and see others as “brothers and sisters in Jesus to respect and love,” he said.
The pope said if people were to listen to the Holy Spirit, they would hear him say, “‘God loves you.’ And we, do we truly love God and others like Jesus did?”
“Let us be guided by the Holy Spirit, allow him to speak to our hearts and he will tell us this: that God is love, he’s always waiting for us, he is a father who loves us like a real dad and only the Holy Spirit can tell our hearts this,” he said.
Before praying the “Our Father” in Latin, the pope interrupted the organ player to reiterate and emphasize the message he wanted people to walk away with at the end of the audience: “We have to listen to the Holy Spirit who is inside us!”
“What does he tell us? That God is good, that God is a father, that he loves us and always forgives us,” he said to applause.

BERLIN – Olivia Willis, a sixth-grader from St. Joseph the Good Provider Parish, didn’t know what to expect.
She was headed for Haiti to meet Sterline Michel, a fifth-grader sponsored in her name through the Worcester Diocese’s Haitian Apostolate.
She had 13 boxes of supplies and 39 backpacks she’d collected to give Sterline’s schoolmates and school, St. Anne’s in Chardonnieres, and the dispensary operated by the Sisters of St. Anne who staff the school.
Olivia encountered the unexpected – and left expectations behind her – on the April 10-17 trip.
So did her 15-year-old sister, Rebecca, and their mother, Julie, who went with her and Sister Marie-Judith Dupuy, a Sister of St. Anne and Apostolate director. Sister Judith’s brother Jean Dupuy and his son, Martin, 13, of Pawtucket, R.I., accompanied them.
Sister Judith said this was the first time she took a sponsor to meet her sponsored student. Now she wants to take sponsors from the Apostolate’s Adopt-a-Student program annually.
She’d been wanting to take Olivia, who started raising money for Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, through a project at her former school, St. Bernadette’s in Northborough. Olivia then asked for donations for Haiti instead of Christmas presents.
“Rather than just giving her money, we decided to sponsor a child for her,” her mother said.
Olivia also raised money and collected backpacks and supplies for the Apostolate to give other students, with help from her family, parish and fellow students and adults at St. Bernadette’s and her present school, Florence Sawyer in Bolton.
In Haiti the Willis family played with children, helped register them for school and held competitions to determine recipients of Olivia’s latest stash of backpacks.
“One time I saw them playing on the ground barefoot,” Sister Judith said of the Willis trio.
“Well, the shoes were getting in the way,” Olivia defended herself. “They were having me jump rope,” which she’s not good at, and they were taking their shoes off, she said.
In Sterline’s math class, Olivia said, she needed a translator for word problems and had to remember when she’d learned those things, and do them without the paper she’s used to.
She said the classrooms were crowded, but her mother said they were nice and the children well behaved.
“I didn’t expect the kids would be so happy for us to be there,” Olivia said. “Some of them were crying when we had to leave – actually most of them were. I told a lot of them I was definitely going to come back.”
Mrs. Willis said Sterline’s tears made her cry.
Sister Judith said the visitors didn’t want to leave, and the principal asked if they could stay a month.
“I was definitely nervous going down there,” Rebecca said. “It was kind of scary going into Port-au-Prince. First of all, everyone is staring at you. They would turn around their cars to point at us.” She figured they figured if you have enough money to fly there, you could save their families, and that there was a lot of anger.
Chardonnieres was very different, she said.
“It was very welcoming, and it was much more about the kids,” she said. She thought they had never seen white people and were nervous.
“Once they realized we were the same as they were, they welcomed us into their homes and showed us their games,” she said. “It was amazing. It just reminded you why it was so important to help as much as you can.”
Asked if the trip changed her, at first Rebecca was quiet, then said simply, “I’m sponsoring four kids now.”
One day she took Nash Josil aside after he was hit by a ball, she said. When other children pointed at him, she thought they meant he was mute.
“Finally he said something to me,” she said.
That did it, she said. She took him right inside the school and registered him. She would pay for his education.
Rebecca’s other boys are Chery Pierre-Cardin, Kenson Jean-Francois and Jaris Lubin, Sister Judith said.
She’s not alone in this endeavor – in more ways than one.
“My brother, Adam, gave me $125 … for the kids I’m sponsoring,” she said. He too seemed interested in going to Haiti.
Their father, Michael Willis, said he’d like to go, but this time he wanted Olivia to be on her own more than with her parents. For now, his wife chose a girl for them to sponsor: Elliane Esperance.
“How impressed I was by what Sister Judith does there,” Mrs. Willis said. “I have such great admiration for her after seeing how much work it is to do things there. There are so many challenges.
“She stays so focused on the people, the kids, helping them get an education, having the joy in their lives school brings. … It makes me feel very confident in telling people what a great program she runs,” and telling them they should sponsor a child or support the Apostolate somehow. “The school is sort of the light in the life of these kids. They want to be there so badly.”
Sister Judith said the Willis family took photos of 141 children who need sponsors, and they’re helping her recruit them. The Sisters of St. Anne have them in school, but neither they nor the children can afford to pay for it, she said.
When the Willis family visited Sterline’s home, Sister Judith said, Sterline’s mother asked her to tell Mrs. Willis that her house was not too nice, with its dirt floor. But Sister Judith explained that some Haitians use sand from the sea, which they replace for the new year, for their floors.
“It was so nice for them to invite us in,” Mrs. Willis said. “They just were welcoming us, even though it must have been so strange to have us there.”
Sister Judith said Sterline’s mother appreciated the visit; others saw that, poor as she is, she has value – she has friends coming from overseas. She gave her visitors coffee, cashews and mangos.
Now they’re trying to help her. They said she cooks lunch at Sterline’s school – over an open fire that produces so much smoke it is blinding her and causing students to cough. Her doctor told her to stop working there, but it’s her only job and she has 12 children, including two with Down Syndrome, they said.
So they plan to buy the school a gas stove for $1300.
Sister Judith said she wants students to help renovate the kitchen for the new stove this summer. She’d like the whole Willis family to join them.

Many people have met the young men from Colombia serving at different parishes throughout the diocese. Only a few, though, have gotten to know their mothers.
Jean Lawler of Leominster is one who has. She’s had an opportunity to spend time with several of the Colombian priests, and their extended families.
Last June she traveled to Colombia for the first Mass of newly ordained Father Hugo Cano, offered at his home parish, in a town outside Medellin. While there, she met his mother and dozens of his relatives.
Upon Ms. Lawler’s arrival in Colombia, she was driven two hours by a man in a jeep to a remote convent somewhere in the mountains. These accommodations, she said, were arranged by Father Cano.
Father Cano said it was a nursing home run by the Sisters of Saint Vincent de Paul, who live in a convent on the property. Although they spoke no English, and Ms. Lawler speaks little Spanish, they communicated in the universal language of smiles.
“We just did a lot of smiling back and forth,” she said.
Ms. Lawler also spent time with Father Cano’s mother, siblings, nieces and nephews. She said his mother, Rosilia de Jesus Montaño de Cano, is very loving and has a large and wonderful family.
“All of her grandchildren come every day to see her,” said Ms. Lawler. “She couldn’t do enough for you when we got there.”
Mrs. Montaño de Cano cooked meals for a crowd, which included about 20 people at one sitting. A mother of nine, she now has many grandchildren.
Father Cano, associate pastor of St. John, Guardian of Our Lady Parish in Clinton, said his immediate family numbers 48.
Ms. Lawler shared a couple of meals with Father Cano’s mother and other relatives. At Father Cano’s first Mass, Mrs. Montaño de Cano invited her and other guests to sit in front in pews reserved for family members.
“When we were there we were her family,” Ms. Lawler said.
Father Cano’s family lives on a small farm, she said. Limes and mangoes that grow on the property were served with the meals. The house is always open to whoever is in the area, she said, noting that Mrs. Montaño de Cano is very generous with meal portions: “She can’t serve you enough food.”
Ms. Lawler said she decided to make the trip because she was invited to attend Father Cano’s first Mass in his native country. She got to know Father Cano through her membership in the Serra Club of Worcester North. She was local club president from 2010-2012, and currently serves on the board.
The City of Medellin and its surrounding areas are beautiful, with lovely weather, she said.
“I didn’t know what to expect from the country,” she said. “I had a great time. I’m definitely going back.”
She was particularly struck by how dedicated the residents of Medellin are to their Catholic faith.
“No matter what time of day you go to a church, it’s crowded,” she said, noting that children don’t attend school on Holy Days of Obligation and other feast days. Schools also close during Holy Week.
“It’s a very faith-filled country,” she said.
Ms. Lawler also met Father Edwin Montaña’s mother, Judith Baicue, and Father Guillermo Ochoa’s mother, Rubiela Vélez, when they traveled to Worcester to attend their sons’ ordinations.
She said all three men seem very close to their mothers, and she believes it’s because these women have such strong faith that their sons became priests.

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Israeli President Shimon Peres officially invited Pope Francis to Israel, telling the pope “the sooner you visit the better, as in these days a new opportunity is being created for peace, and your arrival could contribute significantly to increasing the trust and belief in peace.”

The Israeli president’s remarks were reported in a statement released by the Israeli Embassy to the Vatican after Peres met Pope Francis April 30.

The statement said Peres told Pope Francis about efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, mentioning specifically the meeting April 29 in Washington between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the foreign ministers of the Arab League. Peres also told the pope that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas “is a genuine partner for peace,” the statement said.

Peres left the meeting at the Vatican telling the pope, “I am expecting you in Jerusalem and not just me, but all the people of Israel.”

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told reporters, “The pope would be happy to go to the Holy Land,” although there are no concrete plans for the trip.

The Vatican said that during their half-hour private conversation, the pope and the president discussed “the political and social situation in the Middle East, where more than a few conflicts persist.”

Pope Francis and Peres expressed hopes for a resumption of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians so that “with courageous decisions and availability on both sides, as well as with the support of the international community, an agreement that respects the legitimate aspirations of the two peoples can be reached,” the statement said.

A resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would contribute to peace and stability throughout the region, the Vatican said.

The two leaders also spoke about “the conflict that plagues Syria” and the need for a political solution in Syria that favors reconciliation and dialogue.

The statement released later by the Israeli Embassy to the Holy See quoted Peres as congratulating the pope on his election and praising Pope Francis’ leadership, which is “characterized by humility, the pursuit of peace and not by force. Your leadership creates a new spirit of hope for peace, of dialogue between nationals and of the promotion of a solution to global poverty and illiteracy.”

The Israeli president, according to the statement, told Pope Francis, “the Middle East is disintegrating” and a severe lack of employment, food and water are making many people vulnerable to those who advocate violence.

“You have an important role in progressing peace and the belief in it,” the statement quoted Peres as telling the pope. The president asked the pope to continue publicly praying for and appealing for peace in the Middle East.

Peres met the pope in the library of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace; with the assistance of an interpreter the two spoke privately for about half an hour before the Israeli president introduced members of his entourage to the pope and the two leaders exchanged gifts.

Pope Francis gave the president three Vatican medals and Peres gave the pope a leather-bound copy of the Scriptures in Hebrew and English. The president had written a dedication: “To His Holiness Pope Francis, so that ‘you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go’ (1 Kings 2:3). With deep esteem, Shimon Peres, president of the State of Israel.”

Peres, who was scheduled to receive the “Medal of Honor for Peace” from Franciscan friars May 1, told the pope, “I shall go to Assisi and I will pray for you.”

At the beginning of their private discussions, photographers crowded around, snapping pictures of the pope and Peres seated at the desk in the library. The pope shrugged his shoulders and Peres told him, “It’s part of our life now.”

Leaving Israel April 29, Peres said, “I intend to personally invite Pope Francis for an official state visit in Israel and to strengthen the good relations that already exist between Israel and the Vatican. The Vatican has an important role to play in the stability of the Middle East, and I am sure that this visit will contribute both to the State of Israel and to the cause of peace.”

Talk about a possible papal trip to Israel already circulated in March after Pope Francis met Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. Several news reports said the Orthodox patriarch suggested that he and the pope meet in Jerusalem in 2014 to mark the 50th anniversary of the historic first step in Catholic-Orthodox rapprochement: the 1964 meeting there between Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras.

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Contributing to this story was Judith Sudilovsky in Jerusalem.