Pope to visit Holy Land
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – On his first trip to the Holy Land, Pope Benedict XVI will meet with Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders, stop at the Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall in Jerusalem, and visit a refugee camp in Bethlehem, West Bank, the Vatican said. The May 8-15 visit will take the pope to holy sites in Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories. The pope will visit the new King Hussein Mosque in Amman, Jordan, visit Jesus’ baptism site at the Jordan River, and make a pilgrimage to Mount Nebo, where Moses once looked out at the Promised Land.
Pope Benedict will depart from Rome May 8 and arrive in Amman, Jordan in the afternoon. He departs from Jordan on May 11 and heads for Jerusalem.
On the afternoon of May 15, the pope will leave Israel and head home to Rome. The pope’s itinerary calls for encounters with Israeli political leaders, Christian leaders, Jerusalem’s most prominent rabbis and the city’s leading Muslim cleric, the grand mufti. Pope Benedict also will visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem and celebrate public Masses in Amman, Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Nazareth, Israel.
The pope’s schedule also calls for a visit to the Latin Patriarchate’s co-cathedral, and lunch with the Catholic ordinaries of the Holy Land at the Latin Patriarchate. He will also meet with Greek Orthodox and additional Catholic leaders.
