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| Pope to visit Israel in 2007
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Pope Benedict XVI in Auschwitz in May 2006
Photo: AFP Copyright 2006
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JERUSALEM/ROME (EJP)--- Pope Benedict XVI will visit Israel in the first half of 2007, Israeli and Vatican officials have confirmed.
The Papal nuncio to Israel Archbishop Antonio Franco and Minister of Tourism Isaac Herzog agreed on the trip which will follow on from the visit of the late Pope John Paul II to Israel in 2000.
The official announcement came as a result of a meeting between Shimon Peres and the Pope last April. Peres gave the pope a letter from then acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, which included the renewal of an invitation to visit Israel first made last year by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
"He indicated that he may do it in the first part of next year," Peres said at the time.
Israel to meet Pope's "desires"
According to the National Catholic Reporter, the Pope had two "desires" before visiting the Holy Land.
Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo said the first is that long-running negotiations between Israel and the Vatican over the tax and juridical status of church institutions in Israel will be resolved before it happens.
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The late Pope John Paul II at the Western Wall in Jerusalem during his visit to Israel in 2000. |
The second is that no violence will occur during the pope's trip, to avoid it being "instrumentalized" to serve the political ends of any party to the Middle East conflict.
Herzog has also proposed to Franco that in coordination with the Pope's visit that Israel also host the World Conference of Bishops, held every year in Rome, attended by thousands of bishops.
Herzog believes that such an event would be significant and improve relations with Israel’s Christian community.
Franco in turn asked Herzog to facilitate an administrative-economic agreement between Israel and the Vatican, and to make possible the handling of members of the priesthood in Israel and formalizing their status, including visas and movement in the territories.
He also asked Herzog to smooth the progress of regular movement of pilgrims to Bethlehem.
Though no itinerary has been discussed, when Benedict XVI met with Israeli President Moshe Katsav last November, he expressed interest in seeing Meggido, a site in northern Israel where archeologists recently unearthed what is believed to be the oldest Christian church yet discovered.
Those remains date to the end of the third century.
Outreach to Jews
Benedict has continued John Paul's outreach to the Jews, visiting a synagogue in Cologne, Germany, during his first trip abroad in August 2005.
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Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the Cologne synagogue in August 2005 |
Recently, Benedict also visited Auschwitz during his trip to Poland although this visit was subsequently controversial as many expressed unhappiness with some of Benedict's comments on the site of the former death camp.
When John Paul II made a pilgrimage to Israel in 2000, he visited sites sacred to Christianity, including Mount of the Beautitudes, overlooking the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). Over 60,000 pilgrims came with John Paul II, spent 420,000 hotel overnights, and generated 60 million dollars in tourist revenue.
According to the Ministry of Tourism, 800,000 Christian pilgrims visited Israel in 2005, half of whom were Catholics. Christian pilgrims accounted for 40% of all tourists.
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