When Pope Francis announced his visit 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.