Is it acceptable or just inescapable for the six million Jews who lost their lives in the Nazi era for the Pope not to say, "sorry?" The Pope failed to seize the opportunity and apologize to the Jews on his recent visit to the Holy Land. Instead, he chose to mix prayers and diplomacy, fulfilling a personal dream to trace the history of salvation and sites sacred to Christians, Jews and Muslims.

Celebrating the 2,000 years since Christ's birth, many characterized his visit as a spiritual event during which he would walk into Jesus' footsteps and pray at some of Christianity's holiest shrines with his message of reconciliation forming the central theme. His desire to choose the path of reconciliation demanded a careful choice of words that get deeper. Holding words back can only mean a motivation for dishonesty and a desire to protect an image. Apologies require sincerity from the giver and an initiative to find honesty and true sense in the words one uses. His failure to say he was sorry signaled room for further movement on the Holocaust issues that sill divide Jews and Christians.

Shouldering responsibility for the Nazi atrocities is not enough, and those who wanted more from him couched their disappointment carefully and looked for meaning outside the words of his speeches.

Numerous walkouts from the gathering thwarted his efforts to take delicate steps to soothe historic rivalries between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Jewish expectations were primed for specific details on the Holocaust and the Catholics' blame of the Jewish for Jesus' crucifixion. The Pope's testimony of what happened was simply not enough.

His visit would have been more significant if he said words of apology in Bethlehem and Jerusalem. He may have spoken from genuine, deep-seated convictions, but the 2,000-year-old account of the historic sins of the Roman Catholic Church remains open.