When Pope Francis announced his pilgrimage to the Holy Land

(Vatican Radio) On Sunday January 5, 2014 Pope Francis specified how the main purpose of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land from May 24 to 26 was to mark the historic meeting between Pope Paul VI and the Head of the Orthodox Church of the time, Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople. A meeting which took place after nine centuries of division between their two churches in January 1964.

Veronica Scarisbrick brings you his words on that occasion:

Pope Francis goes to the Holy Land also in the footsteps of his immediate predecessors to the See of Peter: Pope John Paul II, now Saint, in March 2000 and Pope Benedict XV, now pope emeritus in May 2009. His Apostolic journey begins in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, continues in Palestine, and ends in Israel.