CNN blog-"For a pope who sometimes struggles to think in pictures, it was almost a “John Paul moment,” meaning a symbolic gesture reminiscent of his charismatic predecessor, Pope John Paul II...As it turns out, the pope got a PR assist from Goshen-Gottstein."

Reuters-"Talk about a picture being worth 1,000 words. There’s more than that behind this picture of Pope Benedict holding hands and singing a song for peace with leaders of other religions in Nazareth’s Basilica of the Annunciation on Thursday. This might seem like an innocent gesture to most people who see it. To some Vatican correspondents following the pope on his Holy Land tour, it was an unprecedented step that spoke volumes about the evolution of his theological thinking."

National Catholic Reporter-"Very much in that spirit, this afternoon brought arguably the best visual of the trip...the pope and leaders of each community stood on stage and held hands while belting out a song specially composed for the occasion: 'Salam, Shalom, Lord Grant Us Peace.'"

Catholic News Agency-"Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi was asked if this marked the first time on the trip that the Pope prayed with Muslim and Jewish leaders. He replied, 'I'd say that the rabbi had a ingenius and creative idea because nobody can object to singing peace.'."

 New York Times-"At an interfaith meeting in Nazareth, Benedict, 82, smiled as he held hands with Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders while a rabbi sang, "Shalom, salaam, Lord grant us peace."

Irish Times-"At the end of a meeting attended by Christians, Jews, Muslims and Druze, a rabbi told the group he had composed a song for peace using three words or phrases for peace "Salaam" (Arabic), "Shalom" (Hebrew) and "Lord grant us peace"."

 The Daily Telegraph-"In a poignant moment, the rarely spontaneous pope rose to his feet and held hands with religious leaders at a meeting at Nazareth's Basilica of the Annunciation as a rabbi sang a peace song that he composed for the pontiff."