2014-03-07 16:02:42

Vatican confirms Pope’s Holy Land visit despite Israel’s diplomat strike


March 07, 2014 - The pastoral visit of Pope Francis to the Holy Land, May 24-26, remains confirmed as declared earlier by the Holy See, Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi declared on Friday. He was speaking to Vatican Radio over the fear the papal trip could be called off, following a strike by the Israeli diplomats over wages and working conditions that has effectively shut down embassies and consulates worldwide. The Jesuit priest said the ongoing strike could create difficulties in the preparation for the visit, but for the moment everything remains as scheduled.

The Pope said that his 3-day Holy Land trip was to mark the 50th anniversary of the historic meeting between Pope Paul VI and the spiritual head of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople, on Jan. 5, 1964, in Jerusalem. The first major crack in Christianity in the 11th century persists even today. With what is called the Great Schism of 1054, also known as the East-West Schism, Christianity split into the Eastern Orthodox Church based in Constantinople, in what is Turkey today, and the Roman Catholic Church, based in Rome. After over 9 centuries of mutual hostility, excommunication and isolation between Catholics and Orthodox, relations began to warm up after the 1964 meeting in Jerusalem. Pope Francis said that his Holy Land visit would include an Ecumenical Meeting at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher with the representatives of the Christian Churches of Jerusalem, together with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.








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